AN IRON RED ‘SEA CREATURES / HAI SHOU’ GARLIC NECK PORCELAIN BOTTLE VASE
CHINA, KANGXI STYLE
Heavy potted with a slightly compressed globular body surmounted by a tall tapering neck. Adorned in iron...

AN IRON RED ‘SEA CREATURES / HAI SHOU’ GARLIC NECK PORCELAIN BOTTLE VASE
CHINA, KANGXI STYLE
Heavy potted with a slightly compressed globular body surmounted by a tall tapering neck. Adorned in iron red with mythical beasts flying amidst a geometrical pattern resembling crashing waves. The base bears a cobalt blue double ring. 
H: 30,5 cm

Notes:
1. This shape, quite unusual at first sight, first appeared during the Qin Dynasty in bronze vessels, and was later imitated in porcelain during the Song and the Yuan Dynasty. It is said to be derived from Hu-shaped bronze vessels. 
2. ‘Hai Shou’ (lit. sea creatures) first appeared in the ‘Shan Hai Jing’ (山海經, lit. ‘The Classic of the Mountains and Seas’, written in the late Zhou Dynasty. The Classic contains over 200 mythical figures and is the source for many ancient Chinese myths. Rediscovered in the Chenghua period, it served as templates for ceramic designs. For another example of ‘Hai Shou’ on porcelain, please refer to the blue and white Xuande period stem cup preserved at the British Museum, London, UK, under registration number 1925,1022.1.

A related vase is preserved at the Tsinghua University Art Museum, Beijing, China. Only one vase of this design appears to be published, illustrated in Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2000, pl. 19. For a related vase, made of blue and white porcelain and presented as Kangxi mark and period, please see Christie’s Hong Kong, China, 

铁红海兽蒜头瓶
中国

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