278 - A RARE PEACHBLOOM GLAZED 'BEEHIVE' WATERPOT, TAIBOZUN

A RARE PEACHBLOOM GLAZED 'BEEHIVE' WATERPOT, TAIBOZUN China, Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue and period D. 12,5 cm A glaze that fades to a dark shade towards the base, featuring three engraved dragon medallions. The rim is edged with gold-plated metal. Important Spanish private collection, assembled since the 1970s Water vessels in the shape of honeycombsare known as ‘Taibo zun’, named after the Tang Dynasty poet Li Taibai, who is often depicted leaning against a large wine jug of a similar shape. The form was also referred to as a ‘Jizhao Zun’, as it resembled a chicken basket. The attractive peach-blossomglaze was notoriously difficult to produce due to the unpredictability of the copper pigment and appears to have been used only on a small number of forms, which were reserved for use on a scholar’s table and wereduring the reign of Emperor Kangxi. Copper-red glazes had been produced since at least the Ming Dynasty, but were significantly improved during Kangxi’s reign, hömost likely under the supervision of Zang Yingxuan, the imperial supervisor who was sent to Jingdezhen in 1681 to oversee the reconstruction of the kilns. The volatile copper-lime pigment, which was rather difficult to handle, was presumably sprayed onto a layer of transparent glaze using a long bamboo tube and then stabilised with a further layer of clear glaze. A similar water vessel with peach-blossom glaze, bearing the Kangxi mark and dating from the Kangxi period, which is housed in the Palace Museum in Beijing, is illustrated in: ‘Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Collection of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 142, plate 125; three further beehive-shaped vases with ‘peach blossom’ glazewater vessels, bearing Kangxi marks and dating from the Kangxi era, are illustrated in Wang Qingzheng, Kangxi Porcelain from the Collection of the Shanghai Museum, Hong Kong, 1998, Plate 206, as well as by M. Medley, ‘Ming and Qing Monochrome Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art’, London, 1989, plate 580, and S. G. Valenstein, ‘A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics’, New York, 1989, plate 234.) - Reduced mouth mounted with gilt-metal and a short related hairline crack at the rim extending onto the shoulder; glaze defects in two small areas just above the footring