Footnotes

• The present zhadou is a prime example of 18th century Chinese creativness and playfulness, in imitating various other craft materials as porcelain vessels. In addition to imitation of puddingstone, the Qing Dynasty craftsmen also imitated on porcelain other minerals such as marble and agate, natural materials such as wood and bamboo, as well as imitating man-made materials such as bronze and lacquer. This flair for imitation further expanded to forms and decorations from earlier periods, with archaistic forms being particularly inspired by the Qianlong Emperor's call to return to the virtues of archaic periods.
  
  The present vessel is extremely rare and no other example of the same form and decoration appears to have been published. However, for related examples of simulated puddingstone vessels, Qianlong mark and period, see a box and cover in the Palace Museum, Feng Xianming and Geng Baochang, eds., Selected Porcelains of the Flourishing Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 1994, p.338; and also see J.Ayers, The Baur Collection Geneva: Chinese Ceramics - Painted and Polychrome Porcelains of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Geneva, 1974, Catalogue no.A649 (a square stand); B.S.McElney, The Museum of East Asian Art Inaugural Exhibition: Chinese Ceramics, Bath, 1993, pl.220 (a square jardiniere).
  
  Compare a simulated puddingstone censer, Qianlong seal mark and period, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 October 2000, lot 230; a simulated puddingstone quatrelobed box and cover, Qianlong seal mark and period, sold at Christie's Hong Kong 25 March 2010, lot 877; and a simulated puddingstone brushpot, Qianlong seal mark and period, recently sold at Christie's New York, 16-17 September 2010, lot 1451.

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Category: Asian Art / Chinese Works of Art

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