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LARGE ANTIQUE CHINESE MARKED Kangxi (1662-1722)BLUE AND WHITE BLUSTER VASE PrevStopPlayNext
DescriptionANTIQUE CHINESE MARKED Kangxi (1662-1722) BLUE AND WHITE VASE​
A VERY BEAUTIFUL CHINESE LARGE KANGXI MARKED AND OF PERIOD VASE .VASE IS INA BLUSTER FORM . IT NICELY PAINTED WITH FIGURES, LANDSCAPE AND THE BASE IS MARKED WITH KANGXI 12 \" H 8 \" DIA.
CONDITION : AS PER PHOTOGRAPH

Chinese Kangxi blue and white porcelain at its best is superb and rivals any other Chinese blue and white produced during the earlier periods. It may not have the simple vigour of the Yongle blue and white, or the stateliness of the Chenghua but what it does have are charming sophisticated designs inspired by all that went before it together with a great technical expertise that could produce a brilliant under-glaze sapphire blue for the painting, a fine thin attractive white slightly bluish silky glaze applied to a very white body. Unfortunately, it is very easy to gain an unfavourable impression because it was a period when due to huge demand from Europe and the home market, even very poor products were commercially viable. There were a very large number of kilns at the main centre of production at Jingdezhen producing hundreds of thousands of pieces of blue and white porcelain.

Designs were sometimes based on the usual Buddhist and Daoist themes but were more often sourced from a now plentiful supply of illustrated books. These included the ever popular Ming stories from ‘The Three Kingdoms’, ‘The Romance of the West Chamber ‘, together with the perennially popular dramas Xixiang Ji and Wui Hu Zhuan. Chinese Kangxi blue and white porcelain was increasingly varied and innovative in its designs. In addition to the designs already mentioned Dutch and other European shapes and designs were in evidence prior and during the Kangxi period. One example of this is a close copy of a Dutch delft ‘light-house’ hexagonal coffee pot made by Lambert van Eenhoorn, this shape in turn was based on an earlier Dutch metal shape, another are the tulip vases sometimes signed by Adrian Kocks. (These two were the most important makers of Dutch delft from the 17th century)

It is interesting to note that on Chinese Kangxi blue and white porcelain of rounded forms that were made for the domestic market and export, the artists did not know how to complete the decoration of figurative scenes, which usually therefore ended in rockwork and clouds or plantains. In the case of Imperial wares usually a better solution was found. To differentiate between Kangxi blue and white porcelain made for imperial use and that made for the public can be difficult unless one is already familiar with the Imperial designs, but there are some rules of thumb that are useful. Imperial porcelain is of the highest quality and is nearly always finely marked, the potting is perfect and there are few, if any, iron spots or other imperfections in the glaze. There are connoisseurs who believe that there were very few calligraphers drawing the marks and optimistically think that it should be possible to identify the writing of the individual calligraphers.

Some collectors seem to find it difficult to differentiate between Chinese Kangxi blue and white porcelain and the earlier Transitional wares. Once again there are one or two rules of thumb. In outdoor scenes on Transitional wares the grass is always depicted with ‘V’ shapes; Transitional blue and white often had incised ‘an-hua’ borders and some shapes were peculiar to each of the periods. In the case of the finer pieces of Transitional porcelain the figure painting is ‘tighter’ than that found on Kangxi blue and white. The former also displays a rather flatter perspective.

Kangxi 1662-1722Kangxi 1662-1722

The Kangxi Emperors name wasXuanye AIXIN-JUELUOorHiowan Yei AISIN-GIORO, in Manchu. He was born May 4, 1654 as the son of the late EmperorShunzhi, who died in his early twenties and his mother, the 14 year old Imperial ConsortTong, a concubine from theTongiyaclan (1640 - 1663). He was the second emperor of the Qing dynasty to rule over all of China. His reign lasted 61 years, from February 7, 1661 until his death December 20, 1722, making him the longest-reigning Emperor of China in history. The Kangxi era, that is counted as full Chinese years, lasted from February 18, 1662 to February 4, 1723.

The Kangxi Emperor succeeded the imperial throne at the age of seven, on February 17, 1661, twelve days after his father\'s death. Being too young to take power himself, the control over the empire was fulfilled by four guardians and his grandmother the Dowager EmpressXiao Zhuang, that the Shunzhi Emperor had appointed before his death to rule during Kangxi\'s minority. However, after a fierce power struggle one of them,Oboi, seized absolute power as a sole regent.

In the spring of 1662 the Kangxi rulers ordered a massive attempt to gain control over the largely Ming loyalist southern China under the leadership of Zheng Chenggong (also known as Koxinga), something that involved moving the entire population of the coastal regions of southern China, inland.

At age 15 the Kangxi emperor had Oboi arrested in 1669 and began to take control of the country himself. Of major concerns was the flood control of the Yellow River, the repairing of the Grand Canal and theRevolt of the Three Feudatorieswhich broke out in 1673 in the south of China, and also the Chakhar Mongols rebellion in 1675.

In 1673 the Kangxi government mediated a truce in the long-running war in Vietnam, which had been going on for 45 years with nothing to show for it. The Chakhar Mongols was incorporated in the \'Eight Banners\' Chinese Army. In the South the incorporation of the region went so far that in 1684 the Qing Dynasty annexed Taiwan, the last outpost ofKoxinga. Soon afterwards, the displaced families were encouraged to move back towards the coast.

All these campaigns and many more took a great toll on the treasury. From Kangxi period\'s peak during the last decades of the 17th century the treasury shrunk to a tenth or less, by the end of his reign. Corrupt officials were also quite noticeable in the final years of Kangxi. The problem of dealing with this as well as the civil war in Tibet was left with some advices, to the future emperor.

Eventually, through the long years of Kangxi\'s reign factions and rivalries had formed at the court.

The Kangxi Emperor had 20 sons surviving into adulthood. Of these, his second sonYinrengwas at age 2 named Crown Prince of the Great Qing Empire. After that his mother had died in childbed giving birth to him, he was brought up personally by the Kangxi Emperor to become the perfect heir to the Imperial throne.

Yinrengdid not however prove co-operative. Rumor had it that he had cruel habits; to beat and kill his subordinates, he was alleged to have had sexual relations with one of Kangxi\'s concubines, something that was defined as incest and a capital offense, and to purchase young children from the Jiangsu region for his pleasure. The heir apparent Yinreng gradually fell into disfavor and in 1708, on the semi-annual hunting expedition at Rehe, the Kangxi Emperor chargedYinrengwith immorality, sadism, sexual impropriety, usurping power and treason, after which he was deprived of his position as heir apparent and imprisoned. His condition worsened and the Emperor became eventually convinced that he was insane. In 1712 he was placed in perpetual confinement to die in prison in 1725, not long after that his younger brother, the 4th Imperial PrinceYinzhen, had ascended the throne to become theYongzhengEmperor.

To this day, whom Kangxi actually chose as his successor is still a topic of debate amongst historians and is along with three other events, known as theFour greatest mysteries of the Qing Dynasty.

In addition to his military prowess the Kangxi Emperor was famous for his scholarly abilities and his patronage of the arts.

Left mark:Kaishu(normal script) style; Rightzhuanshu(archaic seal script), as far as I have been able to confirm, not occurring on genuine Kangxi period pieces.

Sir Harry Garner has suggested that Kangxi marks could be divided into three chronological groups on the basis of their calligraphy.

Early period:bold

Middle period:freely written marks, rather loose

Late period:Precise, tight, rather small and less \"free\" than the other two groups. Occurs especially on small sized pieces of superb quality; for example the \"peach bloom\" pieces and the \"month\'s cups\".

The Kangxi marks seems not to have been copied during the 18th century. One possibly explanation could be that both Yongzheng and Qianlong seems to have been busy being concerned with their own image and quite possible saw their own porcelain designs as superior to those of previous periods.

In the early Kangxi period the six character Ming mark of Chenghua is seen and occasionally Jiajing, but towards the end of the reign the Kangxi six characterkaishumark is the one that is used.

All genuine Kangxi period marks should be of six characters. The only genuine four character \"Kangxi Nian Zhi\" marks is done within a double line square border and used exclusively for palace workshop decorated wares, the highest level of Imperial porcelain. All four character Kangxi marks without borders are from and around the Guangxu (1875-1908) period when four characterkaishumarks were widely used.

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