Chongzhen, circa 1635-1644
The jar is of globular form, surmounted with a wide spout with flaring mouth. The handle is modelled in the shape of a stoat, its head resting on the mouth rim. The exterior is painted in underglaze blue with scrolling flowers and foliage, and three Buddhist lions climbing upwards. The head of each lion is applied in high relief on the shoulder and pierced horizontally. The top is decorated in reserve with scrolling lotus. The recessed base is glazed.
19 cm high
Jars of this type are sometimes described as carriage pots or chamber pots and possibly made after European shapes (1). Chamber pots first appear in the records of the Dutch East India Company in 1637 (2). The lion-head handles are unusual and were probably meant for suspending the jar from a cord. Although these jars are generally dated circa 1643, based on the discovery of the ‘Hatcher Junk’, the painting style is reminiscent of designs dating from twenty years earlier (3). The subject of lions climbing amidst dense foliage can be seen on several jars from the Wanli period, whereas the reserve-decoration is closer in style to many Chongzhen period pieces, including the covered vases in this catalogue, numbers 39 and 42.
The present jar is one of only five recovered pieces from the ‘Hatcher Cargo’ (4). Other examples outside the shipwreck appear unrecorded. Three of the Hatcher jars were sold at auction in Amsterdam, of which one is in the collection of Sir Michael Butler (5) and another, formerly in the Tectus Collection, painted with melon and tendrils without reserve-decoration, reappeared at auction in London (6).
Provenance: Recovered by Michael Hatcher from the ‘Chinese Junk’ shipwreck, 1983
Formerly in a Dutch private collection
- Little, S., Chinese Ceramics of the Transitional Period: 1620-1683, Washington 1989, pl. 32
- Jenyns, S., The Wares of the Transitional Period between the Ming and Qing 1620-1683, Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America, VCol. IX, 1995, p. 27
- Butler, Curtis and Little, Shunzhi Porcelain-Treasures from an unknown Reign, Virginia 2002, pl. 3
- Sheaf and Kilburn, The Hatcher Porcelain Cargoes- The Complete Record, Oxford 1988, p. 168
- Butler, Late Ming-Chinese Porcelain from the Butler Collection, Luxembourg 2008, pl. 59
- Sotheby’s, 5 November 2008, lot 580
