~ Kangxi Cobalt Blue & White Spiralling Baluster Vase – Circa 1680 ~
This is one of a very similar pair that we got from a collector, the other can be viewed on the Antiques Storehouse Rubylane listing No.12345 (please get in touch if you would like to arrange a deal for buying both together!).
They are attractive blue and white vases, richly decorated with flowers on winding vines, rendered in deep, inky tones of cobalt-blue.
They each have lids gently moulded with soft, artichoke-like petals that extend to scalloped edges and the play of light on their form is designed to please the eye more than a simple domed ginger-jar style lid.
This attention to form sets these vases apart from most seen on the market from this period, as the curvaceous baluster shape also features a gentle spiral twist which the climbing vines follow as if each within a fluted panel.
At the top of these pleasing curves are calling songbirds, a nice addition not seen from a distance, a reward to admirers who inspect the items closely.
All this abundant charm, fertile foliage and stately shape reflect very nicely the era of the vases’ creation:
The Kangxi Emperor (2nd ruler of the Qing dynasty), governed China from 1661 to 1722. This span of 61 years makes him the longest-reigning emperor in Chinese history and one of the longest-reigning rulers in the world and furthermore, his rule was a period of great stability, development, and prosperity for the Chinese Empire.
Driven by a desire to stabalise rather than over-ambitiously expand his empire, he succeeded in suppressing the Mongol rebels that had plagued his country’s borders before him. Then In 1673, his government helped to mediate a truce in the Trịnh–Nguyễn War in Vietnam, which had been ongoing for 45 years since 1627. The peace treaty that was signed between the conflicting parties lasted for 101 years until 1774.
Porcelain manufacturing flourished under the peace and prosperity of the Kangxi era and the export market boomed with the shipment of ceramics from Canton to Europe and the Western world.
A vase such as this would have been made specifically for a European house and may normally have been placed on top of a cabinet alone as part of a Chinese themed interior (hence us offering them singularly).
Ours however are a pair from the same mould, with a near identical pattern, and must have originally been bought together by a home-owner, perhaps keen to maintain a western “mantle piece” symmetry.
~ Dimensions ~
Each vase is 12 and a half inches tall (32 cm) with the lid.
Each vase has a base diameter of 4 and a half inches (11.3 cm).
They each weigh 1.34 Kg.
~ Condition ~
This vase (with a very even pattern throughout) is in good condition, only partially let down by a small repaired crack and chip to one side of the collar, obscured in part when the lid is in place (pictured).
Otherwise the vase is in great shape with only very slight wear to the base.
#6898