Blue-and-White Ewer

Made for the Indian market
China, Kangxi reign period (1662–1722)
Porcelain decorated in underglaze cobalt blue
28cm high, 18cm wide

外销印度市场
中国，康熙年间（1662——1722年）
Stock No.: A5624

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Blue-and-White Ewer

A blue-and-white ewer with a pear-shaped body with flattened, tapering sides, a flaring neck, flattened hexagonal mouth and splayed foot which both have horizontal collars, and a short curving spout.
The curved side panels are decorated with thin branches and flower sprays, whilst the flat body is decorated with larger flowers and leaves growing from a woody ground. The spout features cloud motifs and flowers. Chevron panels run around the ring, the neck and the foot ring of the ewer.

The cobalt blue ornamentaiton on the ewer is similar to the one kept in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul (accession no. TKS 15/4576), which has its lid intact with flowering trees growing behind pierced rocks.¹ It is almost identical in form and ornamentation to a ewer, dated 1680-1710, in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (accession no. 1581-1876).

This flattened pyriform shape is also seen in Indian metalwork, indicating the influence of Indian forms on Chinese porcelain for the Indian market. For example, the Bidri ewer in the Jagdish & Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, Hyderabad (76.1226. ME.5) and brass ewewr in the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art (accession no. AC1995.52.1) are of the same form.²

¹ Krahl, Regina, Nurdan Erbahar, and John Ayers. Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul: A Complete Catalogue III. London: published in association with the directorate of the Topkapi Saray Museum by Sotheby’s, 1986. P. 1009 (no. 2153).
² See Mittal, Jagdish. Bidri Ware and Damascene Work in Jagdish & Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art. Hyderabad, 2011. P. 58.

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