RARE IRON-PAINTED 'CHRYSANTHEMUM AND BAMBOO' HANDLED MOONFLASK
JOSEON DYNASTY, 18TH-19TH CENTURY
£4,284
Fine Asian & Islamic Works of Art
Auction: 3 November 2023 from 09:00 GMT
Description
朝鮮王朝 白磁鐵畵菊竹紋雙耳扁瓶
of flattened globular form set on a high spreading oval foot with a cylindrical neck and everted lip, decorated on one side with bamboo and the reverse with chrysanthemum, two loop-handles flanked the shoulders, two sides of the foot with perforations
Dimensions
17.5cm high
Provenance
Provenance: Christie's, 1981 (according to collector's inventory).
Dr. Kenneth P. Lawley's inventory number: Cer.88.
Footnote
Note: The Korean potters started experimenting with iron brown or black painting as early as the 12th century influenced by the Chinese Cizhou ware. At the beginning of the Joseon period, painting with iron pigment was the distinguishing feature of pottery produced at the Keryong-san kilns. By the end of the 16th century to the end of the dynasty, local potteries across the country have produced white or grey porcelains and stonewares decorated with underglaze iron painting. Some of the finest brushwork is seen on jars and wine flasks decorated with sprays of bamboo, a favourited subject with scholar-artists and aristocrats in the mid-Joseon period, 16th-17th century. Observes G. St. G. M. Gompertz, 1968, Korean Pottery & Porcelain of the Yi Period, London: Faber and Faber, pp. 48-50.
Compare to a finer wine flask with underglaze iron painting of bamboo, 17th century, without the loop handles, illustrated ibid. pl. 62, and a wine flask similarly decorated but flanked with two squirrel-form handles, illustrated ibid. pl. 71A, subsequently sold at Bonhams London, 7 Nov 2013, lot 26. Including this lot, these three moonflasks are decorated with bold sweep of brushwork and rich brown, almost black, of iron pigment producing an effect that evokes admiration.
Several other related comparable examples with nuances of form and detail, all dated to the Joseon Dynasty, are in museum collections. Including the National Museum of Korea, collection no. 동원 248; The Cleveland Museum of Art, accession no. 1999.44; Harvard Art Museums, museum no. 2002.267. Further compare to one with similar cord runners, was sold at Bonhams New York, 24 Sep 2020, lot 1047.
Please note this lot will be offered with no reserve. 本拍品不設底價