Published Catalogue Text: In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art , written 2013
50
Small dish with foliated rim and chrysanthemum, geometric, and stylized-wave décor
Probably Vietnam, Later Lê (1533–1788), Tây Sơn (1778–1802), or Nguyên (1802–1945) dynasty, 17th–19th century; or possibly China, Ming (1368–1644) or Qing (1644–1911) dynasty, 17th–19th century
Buff-colored earthenware with green (copper) lead glaze
1.9 × 9.7 cm (3/4 × 3 13/16 in.)
2002.50.82
The concave walls of this small dish rise from the broad, flat floor to the bracketed lip, which terminates in a raised edge with eight points. A stylized chrysanthemum blossom embellishes the floor; it is set in a circular medallion and enclosed within the wide band of symmetrically disposed, geometric strapwork that enlivens the walls. Facing each other across the dish, two taotie, or ogre, masks interrupt the strapwork. Representing stylized waves, short, opposing bands of hatching, each arranged in a triangular configuration, decorate the everted lip. The dish rests on a low, wide, circular foot ring. Thin and transparent, the lead-fluxed, emerald-green glaze covers the interior of the dish but coats only the upper half of the undecorated exterior.
The kilns that produced this type of ware have not yet been discovered. Concurring that such ceramics reflect Chinese aesthetic canons but were made for the Southeast Asian market, scholars nonetheless disagree on the location of manufacture, some ascribing them to Vietnam, others to southeastern China. They also disagree about the dating of such pieces, some assigning them to the seventeenth century, others to the eighteenth or nineteenth.
The form and glaze color of this dish distantly recall the celadon-glazed chargers with barbed rims and raised edges produced at the Longquan kilns, Zhejiang Province, during the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368).1 The form also echoes that of blue-and-white porcelain chargers produced at Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, in the mid-fourteenth century.[2]
Doubtless inspired by geometric decoration on Yuan-and Ming-dynasty carved lacquers and on so-called later Chinese bronzes—those produced from the Song dynasty (960–1279) onward—the strapwork decoration on this dish finds distant kinship in the decorative schemes of ceramics produced at the Putian kilns, in Fujian Province, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.[3] The debased taotie masks that interrupt the strapwork find close parallels among the masks on bronze vessels cast during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
A typical motif of Chinese ceramic decoration, the chrysanthemum symbolizes both autumn and literary pursuits. By the mid-fourteenth century, stylized waves comprising a series of concentric arcs had become a staple border motif in blue-and-white porcelain chargers produced at Jingdezhen.[4]
This dish was created through the use of a hump, or single-faced, mold—a hollow mound of fired stoneware that was placed at the center of the potter’s wheel. As the potter pressed prepared clay against the mold on the rotating wheel, the mold shaped the interior of the vessel and imparted its relief decoration, while the potter’s hands shaped the exterior and regulated the thickness of the walls.
Although Chinese potters began the widespread use of lead-fluxed glazes during the Eastern Han period (25–220), such low-firing lead glazes enjoyed their greatest popularity during the Tang dynasty (618–907).[5]
Lead glazes generally fell from favor after the mid-eighth century but enjoyed a revival, first in the Liao (907–1125) and Jin (1115–1234) dynasties and then again in the late Ming and Qing periods; they also found favor in Vietnam from the thirteenth century onward. Vietnamese pieces typically mimic the forms and decorative schemes of Chinese stonewares and porcelains finished with high-fired, clear glazes rather than earthenwares embellished with lead glazes.[6]
The unusual Calderwood dish likely falls into this category of wares.
Robert D. Mowry
[1] See Mikami et al. 1981, 49, cat. 35.
[2] Such as a charger with foliate rim and peacock decoration in the Harvard Art Museums (1961.112). For further examples, see Lee 1968, cat. 150; Mortimer 1985, 41, cat. 40.
[3] For examples of stoneware vessels from the Putian kilns, see Krahl 1994, 1:286–87, cats. 531–34. For examples of tixi lacquers, see Metropolitan Museum 1991, 49–62, cats. 6–15. For a later Chinese bronze with geometric strapwork decoration, see Kerr 1990, 46, cat. 34 (right).
[4] See J. Pope 1956, pl. 7 (29.38). Note that John Pope refers to such waves as “concentric waves.”
[5] As a fluxing agent, a compound of lead added to the glaze slurry in small measure intensifies the glaze color. Its primary function, though, is to lower the firing temperature, so that low-firing earthenwares can be coated with colorful glazes.
[6] See Stevenson and Guy 1997, 276–77, cats. 189–92.
