AN EXTREMELY RARE EARLY MING BLUE AND WHITE HOLY WATER FLASK
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Sale 2711
the imperial saleimportant chinese ceramics and works of art
27 May 2009
Convention Hall Buy Catalog

AN EXTREMELY RARE EARLY MING BLUE AND WHITE HOLY WATER FLASK
MING DYNASTY, EARLY 15TH CENTURY

The baluster body rising to a slender cylindrical neck divided by a flanged knop at the mid-section, painted in rich blue tones with characteristic 'heaping and piling', to depict a continuous lotus meander between lotus petal borders, the neck with scattered stylised flames below a floral scroll band around the rim
12 3/8 in. (31.5 cm.) high

虔誠禮佛 – 甘露淨心
蘇玫瑰 - 國際亞洲藝術部學術總監

傳世的乾隆瓷器中, 同類型的裝飾手法有礬紅或鬥彩, 但是十五世紀初青花器則極為罕見. 然而雍正時期繪製的《古玩圖》(現藏於英國維多利亞與阿伯特博物館, 見圖例1)中 , 描繪一件器型及裝飾皆十分相似的青花瓷。

根據出土資料記載, 早至元朝, 景德鎮就已經有燒造長頸飾凸棱的瓷片的證明 , 安徽青陽市文物管理所藏有兩件帶座青花三兔瓶 , 同樣也有相似裝飾。另一件藏於故宮博物院的元青瓷長頸帶凸沿瓶 , 提及此類器型與藏傳佛教供品的關係; 還有一例是福建德化窰出土的元代白瓷。此外, 珠山出土一件相似器型的永樂朝淨瓶, 施仿龍泉青釉 。 元朝的器型並無撇足, 也許是如安徽青陽市文物管理所的藏品, 原本應是置於座上, 而永樂的器型皆作撇足, 以加強穩定性。 造型比例上, 永樂器身也比元代器型為修長。景德鎮近郊定代於宣德-正統年間的墓便出土了一件類似器型的青花民窰器殘件 。

此類器型, 基本上應源自稱為「淨瓶」的金屬器, 通常用於承裝聖水或甘露, 與觀世音菩薩的關係密切。此器造型與軍持或是捃稚迦的相似處為頸部皆飾凸棱, 而相異處則是肩側無流。另外,河北定州靜志寺舍利塔與淨眾院塔基出土的文物中, 有數件北宋定窰白瓷捃稚迦與本瓶器身型制十分相似 ; 肩側有流的捃稚迦同樣也是佛教器物的淨瓶。不過本瓶的口沿較捃稚迦寬, 而且頸部凸棱的位置相比之下也較低。 在觀世音菩薩的畫像或雕像中, 有時難以辨識觀音右手持的是肩側有流的捃稚迦, 還是無流的淨瓶。但是值得注意的, 是自唐代以下的藝術品中 ,絕大多數是描繪觀音以兩指提夾著器頸的凸棱。 如原西安市寶慶寺收藏, 現於波士頓美術館藏的一尊唐代 (公元703年) 沙岩十一面觀音立像, 左手指間便夾一小瓶。敦煌第十二窟一幅公元910年的觀音像,右手所持器物亦是一例 。蘇黎世Reitberg 博物館所藏一座精美的永樂款鎏金銅菩薩像, 右手作與愿印持一淨瓶, 雖然瓶口朝下, 但是瓶頸上的凸棱仍然清晰可見。

南京博物院藏品中有一只珍稀的清康熙青花纏枝花卉瓶, 雖然瓶頸的凸棱較不明顯, 但造型與此瓶相似 。此類器型瓷器於乾隆朝燒造數量較多, 傳世品中有數件帶紅彩: 南京博物院 及臺北國立故宮博物院 各藏有一件此類藏品。南京博物院還另有一件類似器型但頸部凸棱較圓且侈口的鬥彩瓶 。在郎世寧所繪「弘曆觀畫圖」中,乾隆皇帝甚至將此類紅彩長頸瓶置於其他宋、明瓷器及高古青銅器一同置於桌上賞玩, 對此類瓷瓶的喜愛程度, 可見一斑。已故學者汪慶正所著《中國陶瓷辭典》中討論器身與造型章節, 稱此器型清瓷為藏草瓶, 或是甘露瓶, 是乾隆期間宮廷為藏僧特別訂製燒造, 置於佛堂供桌上盛裝藏草用; 而乾隆朝之後因為宮廷內不再有藏僧來朝, 因此未再燒造此類器型。王教授文中提到藏草瓶是用於供桌上, 如此類推, 此瓶也可能是明朝永樂年間燒造作為宮廷禮品, 賞賜給來廷朝拜的西藏高僧。

見《景德鎮出土陶瓷》圖例150。香港大學馮平山博物館, 1990。
朱裕平著《元代青花瓷》第142頁, 圖例6-19。上海文匯出版社, 2000
《中國文物精華大辭典 陶瓷卷》第355頁, 圖例623。上海辭書出版社, 1995。
《景德鎮出土明初官窰陶瓷》第302-3 頁, 圖例121。鴻禧藝術文教基金會, 1996。
《中國陶瓷全集 19: 景德鎮民間青花瓷》圖例12。上海人民美術出版社, 1983。
《地下宮殿 遺寶:中國河北省定州北宋塔基出土文物展》展品57,58及 87。東京:出光美術館, 1997。
《清瓷萃珍》圖例17 。南京博物院,香港中文大學文物館, 1995。
前述《清瓷萃珍》圖例83。
《乾隆皇帝的文化大業》第161頁, 圖例IV-32。國立故宮博物院, 2002。
前述《清瓷萃珍》圖例103。


明十五世紀初 青花纏枝蓮紋淨瓶

I confirm that I have read this Important Notice and agree to its terms.

OBJECT FOR DEVOTION - AN EARLY MING HOLY WATER FLASK
ROSEMARY SCOTT, INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC DIRECTOR, ASIAN ART

While a number of porcelain flasks of this shape are known from the Qianlong reign, decorated in overglaze iron-red enamel or underglaze-blue and overglaze enamels in doucai style, early 15th century examples are extremely rare, especially those decorated in underglaze blue. Nevertheless, an underglaze blue vessel of the same form and decorative scheme appears on an imperial scroll in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, entitled Guwan tu (Scroll of Antiques), see fig. 1, depicting items from the imperial collection dated to the Yongzheng reign AD 1729 (sections of the scroll, but not this section, are illustrated in China - The Three Emperors 1662-1795, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005, pp. 254-255, no. 169).

In fact blue and white porcelain vessels with flanges on their necks were being made at Jingdezhen as early as the Yuan dynasty. The neck of such a bottle was excavated from the Yuan stratum at Luomaqiao, Jingdezhen, and included in the exhibition, Ceramic Finds from Jingdezhen Kilns, Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong, 1992, no. 150, while two blue and white flasks on stands, preserved in the Qingyang City Cultural Bureau, Anhui province, are illustrated by Zhu Yuping, Yuandai qinghua ci, Wenhui chubanshe, Shanghai, 2000, p. 142, no. 6-19. A Yuan dynasty flask with flanged neck and pale bluish glaze in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing is illustrated in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan - Taoci juan, Taipei, 1993, p. 355, no. 623, where its use in Tibetan Buddhism is noted. A white glazed vessel of this form was also excavated from the Yuan dynasty stratum at the Dehua kilns in Fujian province (illustrated in Dehua Wares, Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong, 1990, p. 109, no. 94). A Yongle bottle of this form with a celadon glaze imitating Longquan wares, was excavated from the site of the imperial kilns at Zhushan, Jingdezhen in 1982 (illustrated in Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1996, pp. 302-3, no. 121). While the Yuan dynasty vessels do not flare out at the foot, perhaps because they were intended to be displayed on stands like those of the Anhui vessels, both the excavated Yongle bottle and the current bottle have widely flaring feet, which give them greater stability. The Yongle vessels are also of more slender proportions than their Yuan dynasty counterparts. A minyao bottle of this type with underglaze blue decoration, with broken neck, has also been excavated from a tomb at Jingdezhen dated to the Xuande-Zhengtong period (illustrated in Zhongguo taoci chuanji 19 Jingdezhen minjian qinghua ciqi, Shanghai renmin meishu chubanshe, 1983, no. 12).

This type of bottle or flask, which almost certainly developed from a metal proto-type, is often referred to as a 'pure water' or 'holy water' bottle, although it is more properly called a kamandalu, which is used to contain holy water, called amrta, although it is sometimes referred to in English as nectar or ambrosia. It is particularly associated with the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (Guanyin). This bottle form relates to the kendi and the kundika, having the distinctive flange on the neck, but is differentiated from the kendi and kundika by having no spout on the shoulder. The bottle most closely accords with kundika such as the Ding ware examples excavated from the Jingzhi Temple pagoda (dated AD 977) and the Jingzhongyuan Temple pagoda (dated AD 995) in Dingzhou, Hebei province (see Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Treasures from the Underground Palaces - Excavated from Northern Song Pagodas, Dingzhou, Hebei Province, China, Tokyo, 1997, nos. 57-58 and 87). The kundika with shoulder spout is also often referred to as a pure or holy water flask or sprinkler, and both vessels are associated with Buddhism. The flask has a slightly wider mouth than that seen on the kundika, and the flange is positioned lower on the neck. In sculpted or painted images of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara it is sometimes difficult to see if it is the flask with no shoulder spout, or the kundika, with shoulder spout, that is held in the right hand of the Bodhisattva. What is noticeable, however, is that in the majority of depictions, from the Tang dynasty onwards, the Bodhisattva holds the vessel by the neck, using the flange to suspend it between two fingers. Such a bottle can be seen held between the fingers of a Tang dynasty sandstone eleven-headed Avalokitesvara from the Baoqing Temple, Xi'an, Shaanxi province, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, dated to c. 703, (illustrated in China - Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2004, p. 301, no. 193). An example of this type of bottle can also be seen in the right hand of Avalokitesvara in a painting dated AD 910 from Cave 12 at Dunhuang (illustrated by R. Whitfield and S. Farrer in Caves of the Thousand Buddhas - Chinese Art from the Silk Route, British Museum, London, 1990, p. 41, no. 12). A similar flanged bottle is held in the right hand of a beautiful, Yongle marked, gilt bronze seated figure of Avalokitesvara in the Rietberg Museum (illustrated in On the Path to Enlightenment - The Berti Aschmann Foundation of Tibetan Art at the Museum Rietberg Zurich, Zurich, 1995, pp. 98-9, no. 52). Unusually this latter figure holds the flask upside-down because the right hand is in the varada mudra, (gift bestowing hand gesture), however the flange on the neck of the bottle can clearly be seen.

A rare blue and white Kangxi porcelain bottle of this type, but with reduced flange, is preserved in the Nanjing Museum (illustrated in Qing Imperial Porcelain, Nanjing Museum and Art Gallery, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995, no. 17). Flasks of this form appear to have been made in greater numbers during the Qianlong reign, and several decorated in overglaze iron-red have been preserved. One such flask is preserved in the Nanjing Museum (illustrated by Nanjing Museum in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai wenhua chubanshe, 2003, p. 225), and another is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei (illustrated in Emperor Ch'ien-lung's Grand Cultural Enterprise, National Palace Museum, 2002, p. 161, no. IV-32), while a flask of similar form but with flared mouth and more rounded flange, decorated in underglaze-blue and overglaze enamels in doucai style, is in the Nanjing Museum (illustrated in Qing Imperial Porcelain, op. cit., no. 103). The Qianlong emperor's fondness for such flasks may be gauged from the fact that an iron-red decorated bottle of this type appears on a table along with Song and early Ming ceramics, and some ancient bronze vessels in a portrait of the emperor by Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining) and Ding Guanpeng (illustrated in The Qianlong Emperor - Treasures from the Forbidden City, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2002, p. 109, no. 57). According to the late Professor Wang Qingzheng, in discussing a Qianlong version of this form with overglaze iron-red decoration, this type of Qing dynasty flask was called a zang cao ping, Tibetan herb bottle or gan lu ping, sweet dew bottle in Chinese (see Wang Qingzheng (ed.) in Dictionary of Chinese Ceramics, Sun Tree Publishing, Singapore, 2002, p. 47, lower right). In the Qianlong reign it was a specially commissioned imperial gift to Tibetan monks, and according to the Yinliu zhai shuo ci (Description of porcelain from the Studio of Drinking Steams), it was not made after the Qianlong reign because no further Tibetan monks came to court. Professor Wang notes that in the Qing period such bottles were placed in front of Buddhist shrines to hold herbs. It is likely that Ming dynasty flasks such as the current example were used in the same way, and it is very possible that this flask was made as an imperial gift for one of the Tibetan hierarchs who came to the Chinese court at the invitation of the emperor during the Yongle reign.

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