guan; wine-jar BM-1960-0728.1

Period:Yuan dynasty Production date:1330-1368 (circa)
Materials:porcelain, silver,
Technique:glazed, underglazed,
Subjects:phoenix kirin dragon tree/bush buddha fish lotus,flower eight treasures of buddhism flaming jewel
Dimensions:Diameter: 37 centimetres Height: 48.30 centimetres

Description:
Large guan wine jar decorated in underglaze blue with fish-dragon handles and with a silver rim mount. This large heavily potted guan jar has an ovoid body which spreads out again at the foot. It has a short neck with a raised band at its base, a dish mouth, a ridge around the shoulders and handles on either side at the neck in the form of a fish dragon. It stands on a broad foot ring and has an unglazed base. Typically of porcelain of the Yuan era, its underglaze blue decoration is arranged in contrasting horizontal bands with a broad central register decorated with peonies, viewed alternately from above or the side. Above is a band of inverted lappets framing alternating auspicious and Buddhist emblems with lingzhi fungus or lotus blooms. These emblems are: a flaming pearl, conch shells, paired rhinoceros horns, a wheel of the law, paired fish, paired ingots, paired lozenges, branch coral, a coin, books and branch coral. Around the shoulder on either side are the mythical qilin and the phoenix surrounded by lotus scroll work. The neck is painted with a band of white-crested waves and the rim with a cross-hatched border. Below the peonies is a band of chrysanthemum scrolls and lappets containing inverted lotus flowers. The neck is damaged and the silver mount was probably added in Turkey in the sixteenth century.
IMG


Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:Handles in the form of fish dragons were popular in the Yuan era. An incense burner with side handles in the form of fish dragons in white porcelain was recovered from the Sinan shipwreck, datable to 1323. A qingbai-glazed fish-dragon handle was excavated in the Yuan remains at the Luomaqiao kiln, Jingdezhen. In addition a similar jar and cover but with animal-mask handles, and with a flower scroll in place of the qilin and phoenix, was excavated in the tomb of Tang He (1326-95), one of the military leaders and assistants of the first Ming emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang. Tang He’s tomb was located in Bengbu (formerly Fengyang county), Anhui province.Such large guan jars were used for the storage of wine and were also exported in the fourteenth century to countries in the Middle East and to south-east Asia. Two comparable guan jars are in the Ardebil shrine in Iran. A further example was found in Wat Mahathat, a temple at Lamphun, Thailand. A shard from a similarly shaped Yuan guan was recovered from the sea off Palawan, the Philippines, in 1996. Other blue-and-white jars of this type with complete handles and with minor variations in the decoration are in the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo, and in the Chang Foundation, Taipei.Tree peonies were probably first admired for their medicinal rather than their aesthetic qualities. Peony wine was also brewed. Peonies were described by the Dutch East India Company’s embassy to China in 1656 as being like roses but without thorns, which is in fact a perfect description of these dense flowers with their heavy blooms and delicate leaves.