Posts Tagged ‘Chinese’

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Teapot with kingfisher decoration, c.1750

Saturday, August 4th, 2012

Chinese globular form porcelain teapot with underglaze decoration featuring a kingfisher and pink peonies in the famille rose palette. This popular form was made for export to North America and Europe in the mid 1700s.

Teapot measures 5-1/2″ high and 7-3/4″ wide, from tip of spout to end of handle.

After the original porcelain loop handle broke off, a tinker formed a replacement using bronze covered in woven rattan. I have many examples of wrapped handles on teapots, each with slight variations. I am researching the different decorative patterns used and hope to identify the distinctions unique to each maker.

This globular teapot from the same period shows what the handle on my piece would have looked like before it broke off.

Photo courtesy of LiveAuctioneers

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Posted in teapot | 5 Comments »

Sauceboat with remarkable silver handle, c.1750

Saturday, March 31st, 2012

This large porcelain sauceboat was made and decorated in China and dates from the Qianlong period (1736-1795). Sauceboats (aka gravy boats) were part of larger dinner services, exported to North America and Europe and snatched up by wealthy customers eager to display in their china cabinets.

A skillful hand decorated the gravy boat with polychrome enamel flowers and an iron red border with gilt detailing.

Even the interior is painted with peony flowers and a blue zig zag fence, visible once the last bit of gravy has been consumed.

The broken handle has been replaced with an ingenious solid silver removable replacement, held together with screws and hinges. The craftsmanship is superb and unlike any other I have seen.

Only the wealthy would have able to afford this type of intricate repair, which keeps the body intact and without the intrusion of piercing rivets and bolts.

Sauceboat measures 4-1/2″ high and is 9-1/2″ long.

This shows what the simple loop handle on my similarly shaped sauceboat may have looked like before it broke off.

Photo courtesy of Guest & Gray

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Posted in sauce boat | 6 Comments »

Miniature vase to scent bottle transformation, c.1700

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

Chinese Kangxi period (1662-1722) miniature porcelain vase, decorated in blue underglaze floral design. Costly miniatures such as this were collected by adults and were not necessarily made for children, although they are still commonly referred to as doll’s house miniatures.

After the neck broke off, an unmarked chased silver neck with chain & stopper was added, most likely in Amsterdam, sometime in the early to mid 1800s, turning the vase into a scent bottle. This is my favorite type of inventive repair; one where an object’s original function is altered and transformed into another.

Scent bottle stands a mere 3-1/4″ tall.

Please check out my other doll’s house miniature vases from the same period showing similar striking transformations.

This miniature vase, with nearly identical form and decoration, shows the original form with an intact neck.

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Posted in vase/vessel | 3 Comments »

Heart-shaped metal brace on Chinese bowl, c.1770

Thursday, December 1st, 2011

I have never seen another repair quite like this. The porcelain bowl itself is fine but unremarkable: made in China in the mid-1700’s for export to North America and Europe, decorated in Famille Rose enamels with large stylized flowers and cobalt blue underglaze leaves.

But what makes this piece truly remarkable are the figural repairs. Rather than using standard metal staples or straps to join the broken pieces of the bowl, an inspired metalsmith cut three different shapes to form a unique bond. An unmistakeable heart-shaped brace sits below a strap shaped like a scepter. Each of these has short metal pins attached, which pass through small holes drilled into the side of the bowl.

This short metal strap, straddling a crack, resembles a bow tie.

Bowl measures 4″ high and has a diameter of 8-1/4″.

A single red blossom surrounded by spidery blue leaves is found at the center of the bowl and a decorative border is painted along the inner rim.

The inside of the bowl reveals the carefully hammered ends of the metal brace pins, which are mostly masked by the deep cobalt painted decoration.

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Posted in bowl/dish | 9 Comments »

Ming Swatow jar, c.1590

Saturday, October 8th, 2011

Small Wanli period (1573-1620) Ming pottery jar from Swatow, in Southeast China, with a blue underglaze decoration of deer and stylized plants with crackle glaze. I purchased this great little jar from a ceramics dealer in Amsterdam, where a replacement neck was created over 200 years ago after the original neck broke off.

Jar measures 3-1/4″ high, 3-1/4″ wide.

Remains of the original broken neck are mostly obscured by the replacement neck and collar.

The Dutch replacement copper neck has an elaborately engraved floral design.

This jar has the same form and decoration as mine but with an intact neck.

Photo courtesy of Trocadero

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Posted in pot/jar | 5 Comments »

Chinese charger with 35 staples, c.1730

Friday, September 9th, 2011

This large porcelain charger, made in China during the Yongzheng period (1723-35), measures 13-3/4″ in diameter. The famille-rose palette with predominantly pink colored enamel is made from colloidal gold, a suspension of gold particles mixed into the glaze.

The polychrome decoration of a large tree on a terrace with over-scaled flowers is painted in shades of green, pink and blue on a pale green ground.

After this charger was dropped and broke in to over 20 pieces of varying sizes, an itinerant china mender made it whole again by carefully drilling holes in to the underside of the porcelain and securing 35 metal staples to either side of the cracks.

The disarray of cracks and staples make a wonderful pattern of their own.

These unusual metal staples have a deep ridge running through each length.

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Posted in plate/platter | 7 Comments »

Chinese Nanking mug, c.1790

Saturday, August 6th, 2011

What a mess this guy is! It looks like someone threw it out of a moving car. This humble porcelain mug with cobalt blue Nanking underglaze decoration began its life in pristine condition over 220 years ago in China and was most likely exported to North America or Europe.

Measures 5″ high with a 3-3/4″ diameter.

The original porcelain handle seems to have gone missing some time ago. The rim appears to have been nibbled at by a porcelain mouse.

Although this mug is riddled with numerous cracks and chips, it will make a splendid pencil holder.

All that holds the mug together now is a single tin strap, added by a tinsmith in the 19th century.

Bits of old fabric strips once sealed the cracks on the bottom. Looks to me like the linen used to wrap mummies.

This mug, clearly in much better condition than mine, still maintains its original handle. But I am sure my mug had a much more colorful life.

Photo courtesy of Antiques.com

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Posted in mug/tankard | 4 Comments »

Imperial Nanking cup & saucer, c.1810

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

A delicate Imperial Nanking porcelain cup with matching saucer, decorated in cobalt blue underglaze with gilt overglaze trim. Both pieces have a scalloped rim and were made in China for export to Europe and North America in the early 1800’s.

The cup measures 2-1/4″ high, with a diameter of 2-1/4″ and the saucer has a diameter of 5″.

When the lapped reeded handle broke off nearly 160 years ago leaving just the leaf terminals, a skilled metalsmith forged a bronze handle and covered it with woven rattan.

The original handle on my cup would have looked like the one on this cup of similar form and decoration.

Photo courtesy of Trocadero

 

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Posted in cup/saucer, saucer | No Comments »

Nanking teapot, c.1800

Friday, December 31st, 2010

A Chinese porcelain teapot with hand painted cobalt blue Nanking underglaze decoration dates from 1790 to 1820. This type of design, produced in China since the mid-17th century, was so popular that it was first copied in 1780 by the English potter Thomas Turner of Caughley and was mass produced as the “Willow Pattern” (aka “Blue Willow”) with transfer decoration and sold worldwide

Today it is considered “America’s favorite patterned ware” and can be found in the wealthiest homes and roadside diners alike

Teapot measures 4-3/4″ tall and is nearly 10″ wide, from tip of the spout to the end of the replacement handle

A tinsmith came to the aid of the distraught original owner of the broken teapot and created an elaborate replacement handle. The metal handle has crimped edges, a thumb rest, hand grip and a tin truss encompassing the teapot for extra support

The same cobalt blue pagoda pattern is on both sides of the teapot

All that remains of the broken lapped reeded handle are the leaf terminals

This teapot with similar form and decoration shows what my teapot would have looked like with its original lid and handle intact

Photo courtesy of Equinox Antiques

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Qianlong cream jug, c.1750

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

A lovely porcelain baluster form cream jug with sparrow beak spout, decorated in the Famille Rose palette. Made in China during the Qianlong period (1736-96) for export to North America and Europe, when fine porcelain was in high demand

The delicate ornamentation rendered in polychrome enamels depicts a cashpot, itself decorated, and spilling with flowers, vines and a pumpkin

Jug stands 3-1/2″ tall, minus its lost cover

When this jug was dropped and its handle lost, it was brought to a metalsmith who fashioned a replacement handle from bronze. The scroll shape of the new handle, more elaborate in form than its predecessor, suggests it was forged in the early to mid-1800’s

This cream jug, from the same period and of similar form and decoration, has its original cover and handle intact

Photo courtesy of  Guest & Gray

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