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Lot 367
A FINE IMPERIAL PEACHBLOOM-GLAZED BEEHIVE WATER POT
Estimated Value:
3.000 € - 5.000 €
Result:
8.417 € incl. Premium and VAT
Description:
China, underglaze blue Kangxi six-character mark and periodD. 12,7 cm
The water pot is well potted with rounded sides, incised with three archaistic dragon roundels on the body. It is covered with a peachbloom coloured glaze suffused with crushed strawberry mottling. The interior and countersunk base are covered in a transparent glaze.
Old German private collection, bought from Koller Zuerich, 2.6.1989, lot 232
Water pots of this form are known as Taibai zun, after the Tang dynasty poet Li Bai who was also named Li Taibai (701-762). In later imageries Li Bai, a renowned drinker of wine, is often depicted leaning against a large wine vat of this shape. The vessel's shape is also also known as jichao zun because their shape resembles that of a basketwork chicken coop that is woven with a small opening at the top through which the chicks are fed. Peachbloom-glazed vessels were highly treasured by the Kangxi Emperor, and were primarily fired as small-sized scholar's objects for the Emperor's table. Beehive water pots belong to a group of peachbloom-glazed vessels for the scholar's table known as Badama, 'Eight Great Numbers'. This group was previously thought to comprise a total of eight differing shapes. John Ayers identified a possible ninth form of the Badama by pointing out the existence of two slightly different globular water pots. The first is termed as a pingguo zun, 'apple jar' modelled with a gently inward curving mouth rim; and the other with a raised, low neck (similar to a stalk) that maybe referred to as a Shi liu, or 'Pomegranate jar'. See, J. Ayers, 'The 'Peachbloom Wares of the Kangxi Period (1662-1722), Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 64, 1999-2000, p. 49 - Mouth polished, the stand with few very small chips or frits
