Authenticating Chinese Art Ming Dynasty Imperial Xuande Blue & White Wares
Authenticating Chinese Ming Dynasty Imperial Xuande Blue & White Wares Masterpieces of the Xuande Period at
Christie’s
The Priceless Ming Jar Used as an Umbrella Stand | Christie’s
This magnificent and very rare large blue and white ‘Dragon’ jar was once used as an umbrella stand.
After a team of Christie's specialists looked at the jar, they realised they were handling an incredibly important piece of Chinese porcelain from the Ming Dynasty.
In this video, Chi Fan Tsang, a specialist in Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, discusses the details that make this piece so special, including the significance of the five-clawed dragon, and the cross mark on the base of the vessel.
The dragon jar sold in 2016 for HK$158,040,000 / $20,447,642 as part of the '30 Years: The Sale' auction on 30 May in Hong Kong.
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Studio Visit with Ceramic Artist Jenny Hata Blumenfield | Christie’s
Los Angeles-based mixed-media ceramic artist Jenny Hata Blumenfield helps us reconsider the place of ceramics and pottery in contemporary art. ‘I see clay as having the widest range of expression,’ she explains. ‘By working with it the way that I do, I hope that steadily people will start to receive this idea of ceramics or clay as something beyond just functional.’
Blumenfield incorporates Lucite, an acrylic resin, into some of her works. In this short film, she describes transforming a two-dimensional drawing into a three-dimensional sculpture, which truly comes into its own when taken outside.
One of the most striking aspects of her process is her embrace of division, dissection and separation.
‘Being half-Japanese and half-American, I always felt stuck between two cultural identities,’ she explains. ‘I’m these two halves that really can’t seem to connect — I just exist in the in-between.’
But there is a second duality at play here, too. ‘I just would love to cut everything in half or into quarters just so that I can continue to break down this idea that ceramics can only be functional and can only be used in a day-to-day setting.’
‘That allows me to really incorporate other materials — Lucite, wood, paper, photographs — because it takes away the formalism of the vessel itself, and allows me to get experimental.’
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A Wedgwood Vase from 1769 – ‘An Important Piece of Ceramic History’
‘This vase is a really important piece of British ceramic history,’ says Matilda Burn, a Christie’s specialist in Decorative Arts, of this black ‘basaltes’ encaustic-decorated ‘First Day’s Vase’, potted by Josiah Wedgwood in 1769. ‘It’s the start of a legacy that has continued through the centuries. He really dedicated his life to the perfection of his art.’
Josiah Wedgwood (1730-95) is arguably the most revered of British potters. Coming from a large family of well-established potters in Staffordshire, his upbringing was modest, although he was well connected to important figures in the pottery industry. These included his cousins Thomas and John Wedgwood of the Big House, who were successful manufacturers of salt-glazed stoneware.
Following the death of his father, Josiah Wedgwood was apprenticed to his older brother, Thomas. ‘He went on to develop the skills of a master potter,’ explains Burn, ‘which was really the most coveted position and which took years to work his way up to.’
Wedgwood established his own manufactory, the Ivy House Works, with his cousin Thomas in around 1759. Building on early successes, he moved shortly after this to the Brick House Works. During this time he continually carried out experiments to finesse his creamware body and lead glaze. It was with his creamware body that Wedgwood achieved wide acclaim and commercial success.
Josiah was a great publicist of his own wares and during the 1760s he had a growing list of aristocratic patrons, all of whom sought his fashionable creamware. Wedgwood also keenly courted the patronage of Queen Charlotte, who commissioned a service from the Chelsea factory in 1762.
It was on a visit to Liverpool in 1762 that Wedgwood had a chance meeting with Thomas Bentley, a well-travelled and cultivated man who had taken the Grand Tour in 1753. As a business partner Bentley offered Wedgwood not only essential commercial experience but also a deep understanding of changing tastes and market trends. In combination with Wedgwood’s inventiveness and deep technical understanding of the art of pottery, Bentley was able to help shape and guide the direction of production.
Together, Wedgwood and Bentley played an important part in the development and expansion of the Trent and Mersey Canal. The success of the canal scheme allowed Wedgwood to expand his manufactory, and he purchased a 350-acre estate through which the canal would pass. The new purpose-built factory and the surrounding estate became known as Etruria, named after the ancient central state in Italy whose arts, most notably pottery, were being rediscovered in archaeological digs at the time.
This ‘First Day’s Vase’ was potted on the opening day of the Etruria Factory in Staffordshire on 13 June 1769. Wedgwood potted it himself, with his partner Bentley turning the wheel. ‘It is one of six that were fired,’ explains Burn, ‘but only four survived the firing process, which it makes it all the more exciting.’
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A Haniwa Model of a Horse from 6th-Century Japan
This haniwa clay model of a horse from 6th-century Japan would have been buried in a tomb on ‘a very grand scale’, explains Japanese Art specialist Mark Hinton.
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The decoration and detailing suggest it would have been made for a ‘very high-ranking person’, with tombs for such people often being ‘similar in size to a football pitch’.
Haniwa of armoured warriors and horses of the 5th and 6th century A.D. indicate the military power of the ancestors of the imperial line, and show that the horse must have played a major role in the unification struggles and the rise of the Yamato clan.
Although archaeology tells us that there were wild horses in Japan long before the Kofun period when this was made, it is believed that they had never previously been domesticated. The contents of tombs attest that horses and riding accoutrements were brought to Japan from China and Korea around the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th century.
‘I think it is a very imposing and rather haunting creature,’ says Hinton of this impressive highlight from the Art of Japan sale on 8 December in London. ‘It gives us an insight into an extraordinary period in the pre-history of Japan.’
An Introduction to Greek Vases | Christie’s
International Head of Antiquities G. Max Bernheimer surveys some magnificent Greek vases.
For a civilisation that disappeared 2,000 years ago, the ancient Greeks left a great deal behind: philosophy, democracy, poetry, architecture, and an extensive corpus of vases, which comprise a large part of the archaeological record.
Their enduring popularity is reflected in the breadth of their influence on contemporary art — as seen in the pottery of Grayson Perry and Picasso, and in the paintings of de Chirico and Jonas Wood.
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Authenticating Chinese Art Imperial Northern Song Dynasty Ru Ware
Authenticating Chinese Imperial Northern Song Dynasty Ru Ware.Chinese Imperial Song Dynasty Ru Wares are the most Important, Collectable and Valuable ceramics China has ever produce at These wares were the first wares to be commissioned by the Emperor to be used exclusively by Himself and his Court in China's history.