yuhuchun ping BM-1975-1028.3

Period:Yuan dynasty Production date:1330-1368 (circa)
Materials:porcelain
Technique:glazed, underglazed,
Subjects:leaf fruit lotus
Dimensions:Height: 29 centimetres

Description:
Yuhuchun bottle with underglaze blue decoration. This pear-shaped yuhuchun bottle, which has a round body and trumpeting mouth with everted rim, stands on a splayed foot. It is painted in horizontal bands with grapes on a scrolling vine around the body and below with a band of half-cash diaper and lotus-petal lappets above the foot ring. Around the shoulder is a band of panels containing flowers and roundel with classic scroll work below, diaper above and feathery leaves around the neck. The base and inside the foot are glazed.
IMG


Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:Grapes, it is generally accepted, were first grown in China in the Western Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 9). Seeds were introduced via central Asia where grape wine was then made in, for example, Parthia and Ferghana. The sweet taste of grapes made them popular in the northern areas of China where they grew and by the Tang (AD 618-906) grape wine was widely drunk. Li Shizhen, the Ming pharmacologist, recommended grape wine for strengthening the kidneys, preserving a youthful appearance and resisting the cold. Grapes are a symbol of abundance. Although the grape vine design is often found on large serving dishes, it appears rarely on surviving yuhuchun bottles of the Yuan era. A shard from a dish showing a deer eating grapes was excavated at a kiln site in Hutian from a Yuan context where this bottle was probably made.