Period:Ming dynasty Production date:1643 (circa)
Materials:porcelain
Technique:glazed, underglazed,
Subjects:fruit insect,flower
Dimensions:Height: 19.80 centimetres
Description:
Pair of porcelain kendi with underglaze blue decoration. This pair of kendi each has a compressed globular body, tubular neck, disc-shaped mouth and spout with narrow tubular opening. The base is unglazed and slightly sunken in the centre. Both are painted in ‘transitional’ style with insects including butterflies and naturalistic plants such as pomegranates, chrysanthemums, lychees and finger citron in rich shades of underglaze blue. A finger citron, 佛 手 ‘fo shou’ [Buddha hand], is a citrus fruit of bizarre appearance with excrescences resembling fingers on a hand. Sweet-smelling, it is often used to perfume a room, though it is not eaten. With minor variations in the arrangement of the motifs the top of each vessel is decorated with flower scrolls and the spout with a flower scroll or petals and with a petal border. Sand, from the ocean bed, has blocked the spouts.
IMG
![图片[1]-kendi BM-1984-0303.11.a-b-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Ming dynasty/Ceramics/mid_00262849_001.jpg)
Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:The kendi were recovered from among some 25,000 vessels found on the wreck of an unidentified Asian ship in the South China Sea. This ship is known as the ‘Hatcher wreck’ after Captain Michael Hatcher who discovered her and salvaged her cargo in 1983. There is no written record testifying to the exact year of her sinking but the covers of two oviform jars inscribed in underglaze blue with a cyclical date corresponding to 1643 make a fairly precise dating of the wreck possible. The cargo primarily consisted of two types of blue-and-white porcelain made at Jingdezhen at the end of the Ming dynasty – late variations of ‘kraak’ ware and examples of a ‘transitional’ style characterized by landscape motifs and naturalistic plants and birds. The ship may have been on its way to Indonesia, carrying also spices, silk and other commodities for sale to the Dutch whose East India Company had offices in Batavia (modern Jakarta), Indonesia. Chinese junks sailing to Batavia or Bantam varied in size from 200 to 800 tonnes. The journey out was made over three weeks during December and January and the return trip took place in June and July. The shape of these kendi is neither Chinese nor European, but derives from South-east Asian water pourers. Although this might suggest that they were destined for sale to South-east Asian customers rather than for transport on to Holland, we know from surviving Dutch still-life oil paintings that porcelains in shapes seemingly made for non-European customers were sold and used in Europe. Out of a total of 545 kendi, eleven with this type of ‘transitional’ decoration were sold at auction over the four Christie’s sales of the Hatcher wreck cargo. Most kendi recovered from the wreck had ‘kraak’-style decoration.
Materials:porcelain
Technique:glazed, underglazed,
Subjects:fruit insect,flower
Dimensions:Height: 19.80 centimetres
Description:
Pair of porcelain kendi with underglaze blue decoration. This pair of kendi each has a compressed globular body, tubular neck, disc-shaped mouth and spout with narrow tubular opening. The base is unglazed and slightly sunken in the centre. Both are painted in ‘transitional’ style with insects including butterflies and naturalistic plants such as pomegranates, chrysanthemums, lychees and finger citron in rich shades of underglaze blue. A finger citron, 佛 手 ‘fo shou’ [Buddha hand], is a citrus fruit of bizarre appearance with excrescences resembling fingers on a hand. Sweet-smelling, it is often used to perfume a room, though it is not eaten. With minor variations in the arrangement of the motifs the top of each vessel is decorated with flower scrolls and the spout with a flower scroll or petals and with a petal border. Sand, from the ocean bed, has blocked the spouts.
IMG
Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:The kendi were recovered from among some 25,000 vessels found on the wreck of an unidentified Asian ship in the South China Sea. This ship is known as the ‘Hatcher wreck’ after Captain Michael Hatcher who discovered her and salvaged her cargo in 1983. There is no written record testifying to the exact year of her sinking but the covers of two oviform jars inscribed in underglaze blue with a cyclical date corresponding to 1643 make a fairly precise dating of the wreck possible. The cargo primarily consisted of two types of blue-and-white porcelain made at Jingdezhen at the end of the Ming dynasty – late variations of ‘kraak’ ware and examples of a ‘transitional’ style characterized by landscape motifs and naturalistic plants and birds. The ship may have been on its way to Indonesia, carrying also spices, silk and other commodities for sale to the Dutch whose East India Company had offices in Batavia (modern Jakarta), Indonesia. Chinese junks sailing to Batavia or Bantam varied in size from 200 to 800 tonnes. The journey out was made over three weeks during December and January and the return trip took place in June and July. The shape of these kendi is neither Chinese nor European, but derives from South-east Asian water pourers. Although this might suggest that they were destined for sale to South-east Asian customers rather than for transport on to Holland, we know from surviving Dutch still-life oil paintings that porcelains in shapes seemingly made for non-European customers were sold and used in Europe. Out of a total of 545 kendi, eleven with this type of ‘transitional’ decoration were sold at auction over the four Christie’s sales of the Hatcher wreck cargo. Most kendi recovered from the wreck had ‘kraak’-style decoration.
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