IRON-RED-DECORATED WHITE-GLAZED SOFT-PASTE MOONFLASK VASE
YONGZHENG MARK AND POSSIBLY OF THE PERIOD
?????? ?????????????the circular body sturdily potted and supported on a splayed foot, surmounted with a short neck with disc-shaped mouth, each of the circular sides moulded in low relief with two four-clawed sinuous dragons surrounded by ruyi- head clouds, the long sides further adorned with archaistic key-fret patterns highlight in iron-red and gilt paint, covered overall with a white glaze with ivory tinge and fine craquelure, leaving only the foot rim unglazed, the base incised with a six-character Yongzheng mark under the glaze
28cm high
The qualities of the present vase - the slight ivory tinge of the crackled glaze and the crisp decoration - are all characteristic of 'soft-paste' porcelain, a technique developed in the 18th century for making white porcelain. This technique was developed as an attempt to imitate the ivory-white Ding wares from the Song dynasty. The body was particularly fine textured and therefore ideal for very crisp moulded, carved and incised designs, as seen on this vase. The glaze on these soft-paste porcelains usually has a finely crackled appearance.'Soft paste' involves the addition of a powdered white clay to the porcelain body, which is called hua shi (slippery stone), and the resulting lightweight ware with delicately moulded and incised designs, was actually more expensive to produce than a standard kaolin body, as Pere d'Entrecolles observed in his second letter of 1722. For a full discussion, see R. Kerr, Chinese Ceramics: Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, 1986, pp. 52-53, where the author also illustrates a Qianlong 'soft paste' vase in the Victoria and Albert Museum, fig. 29, accession number C.551-1910. A closely comparable moonflask of similar two-dragon decoration, was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 16th May 1977, lot 217. Another white-glazed soft-paste moonflask, carved with shou characters and dated to the Qianlong period, was sold at Sotheby's London, 1 November 2023, lot 15. Other soft-paste examples include a white-glazed hu-form vase with elephant heads and cloud design, dated to the Qianlong period, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession number: 29.100.279.