Period:Ming dynasty Production date:1620-1644 (circa)
Materials:stoneware
Technique:glazed, gilded, fahua,
Dimensions:Height: 5.80 centimetres (height of base) Height: 41.50 centimetres (with stand)
Description:
Stoneware figure of Li Tieguai with a detachable stand decorated in the ‘fahua’ palette. This figure depicts one of the Eight Daoist Immortals, Li Tieguai [Iron-crutch Li]. He is identified by his distinctively unkempt appearance, the crutch and the gourd containing the elixir of immortality which he holds in his left hand. Legend has it that he once fell into a trance and his spirit left him to wander abroad. When his servants discovered his soulless body, they assumed he was dead and had the body cremated. Then Li Tieguai’s soul returned, but as there was no body left he was forced to enter the body of a sick lame beggar who had recently expired, hence his appearance. The figure is hollow and has four pegs attached below its base which fit into the stand. This is moulded in the front to represent waves and glazed yellow inside.
IMG
![图片[1]-figure BM-1936-1012.190-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Ming dynasty/Ceramics/mid_00272315_001.jpg)
Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:Several aspects of this stoneware figure in the ‘fahua’ palette are noteworthy First, brown paint has been used on the biscuit surface to darken the flesh, earring, hair, crutch and sleeve linings. Second, a dark aubergine colour has been painted over the surface of the figure and in places where this has flaked off a deep blue colour is revealed. Third, there are traces of gilding on the right hand, left arm, the gourd and the face, suggesting that all the brown-painted areas were once lacquered and gilded. Hobson suggested that the figure was an incense burner. Incense could be burned within the stand and the smoke would escape through the mouth of the gourd. The stoneware body indicates that it was made in Shanxi province.
Materials:stoneware
Technique:glazed, gilded, fahua,
Dimensions:Height: 5.80 centimetres (height of base) Height: 41.50 centimetres (with stand)
Description:
Stoneware figure of Li Tieguai with a detachable stand decorated in the ‘fahua’ palette. This figure depicts one of the Eight Daoist Immortals, Li Tieguai [Iron-crutch Li]. He is identified by his distinctively unkempt appearance, the crutch and the gourd containing the elixir of immortality which he holds in his left hand. Legend has it that he once fell into a trance and his spirit left him to wander abroad. When his servants discovered his soulless body, they assumed he was dead and had the body cremated. Then Li Tieguai’s soul returned, but as there was no body left he was forced to enter the body of a sick lame beggar who had recently expired, hence his appearance. The figure is hollow and has four pegs attached below its base which fit into the stand. This is moulded in the front to represent waves and glazed yellow inside.
IMG
Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:Several aspects of this stoneware figure in the ‘fahua’ palette are noteworthy First, brown paint has been used on the biscuit surface to darken the flesh, earring, hair, crutch and sleeve linings. Second, a dark aubergine colour has been painted over the surface of the figure and in places where this has flaked off a deep blue colour is revealed. Third, there are traces of gilding on the right hand, left arm, the gourd and the face, suggesting that all the brown-painted areas were once lacquered and gilded. Hobson suggested that the figure was an incense burner. Incense could be burned within the stand and the smoke would escape through the mouth of the gourd. The stoneware body indicates that it was made in Shanxi province.
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![[Qing Dynasty] British female painter—Elizabeth Keith, using woodblock prints to record China from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China—1915-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/image-191x300.png)
