A Newsletter of the China Students’ Club of Boston Volume 12, Issue 3 www.chinastudentsclub.org
May 2009
A Message from Our President Dear Members, As I step down from my role as President, I would like to extend my thanks and appreciation to all members who have been working to make this Club so successful over the past three years. Small organizations like ours are deeply dependent on dedicated volunteers who are able to give their time and talents. I am not able to thank everyone personally—given my small amount of space—but I appreciate all of your efforts, from bringing cookies to laying out the Blue Book! I appreciate the hard work of Jeffrey Brown and Yon Bard who pull together each issue of Shards for the Club members. A special thank you goes to Greg Lovell for taking on the role of Treasurer and being so good at it! Thanks to Louise Richardson, Cheryl Robertson, Jim Kaufman, and Carolyn Roy for helping to organize our efforts for the 75th-Anniversary Exhibition. Perhaps in better economic times this exhibition may become a reality. I want to thank James Mattozzi for spearheading the creation of our website www.chinastudentsclub.org and maintaining it ever since. A special thank you goes to Anne Lanning, our terrific Program Chair. She has lined up so many great lecturers for us over the years. Thank you for staying in this position and contributing innumerable hours on the Club’s behalf. Without you this Club would be in very sorry shape! Despite the recent ups and downs in the economy, the China Students’ Club is still a vital, active, and growing
group of dedicated professionals, collectors, dealers, appraisers, and ceramics lovers—even in our 75th year. I look forward to more years of good times in the future. Many of you may be wondering about the status of the 75th-Anniversary Exhibition—particularly since this is our 75th year! We appreciated all of the photographs and information about the objects from your collections that we received in the mail and via email. The Exhibition Committee—chaired by Louise Richardson— met with staff from the Concord Museum in Concord, MA, to discuss having an exhibition of members’ ceramics in their galleries. While the subject matter was interesting to the museum and the timing worked, Concord wanted the China Students’ Club to contribute significantly to the cost of the exhibition—about 50% of the total. Our Club needed to raise these funds, because our current bank balance is only sufficient to cover our normal operating expenses. We also explored having a small exhibition at the Ellis Antique Show next October 2009, but we heard that the Ellis Show has been cancelled because of the departure of AIG as a major sponsor. Due to the uncertain economic climate for fundraising, the Board of the China Students’ Club has resolved to postpone the 75th-Anniversary Exhibition to a later date. Please look out for more information and updates on future Anniversary events. Thanks, Amanda Lange
Walter Denny on “European Copies of Turkish Ceramics: The Sincerest Form of Flattery” Reviewed by Jeff Brown Our first lecture of the New Year was held at the College Club and was given by Walter B. Denny, Professor of Art History at U-Mass Amherst and Senior Consultant, Dept. of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He spoke on the subject of European Copies of Turkish Ceramics: The Sincerest Form of
Flattery. Ceramics for the past 500 years have played an important role in both Turkish culture and trade, as these brightly enameled wares on a white slip ground have been admired since their inception. It is odd then that Continued on page 2
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European Copies of Turkish Ceramics Continued from page 1 the center of production for these popular wares was virtually forgotten in the West until the 1950s when scholars rediscovered Iznik (the ancient Nicea of Council fame), a small town 40 miles from Istanbul, and recognized it as the center of production. The tiles that came from Iznik kilns covered the walls of many Ottoman buildings and it is because we know the date of construction of each edifice (and the tiles affixed to its walls) that we can stylistically date Iznik wares. Turkey is on the edge of Europe and it is no surprise that a large amount of Iznik pottery showed up in the West from very early on and, like rare Chinese porcelain of the day, it was often mounted in precious metal to embellish it and protect it from chipping. The Turkish ceramics from this period were made to emulate Chinese blue and white Ming porcelain being imported in great quantities into Istanbul at the time. The Turks had just captured Constantinople from the Byzantines in 1453 and the fledgling Ottoman Empire was anxious to prove that it could produce ceramics equal to the fine pieces of the Ming Dynasty in the East. The Turkish “recipe” involved finely ground quartz, frit, and kaolin mixed into a clay that was potted, covered with a thin white glaze, and decorated with cobalt, the entire piece then being covered with a clear glaze. Iznik was a pottery-making center long before the Ottomans came upon the scene, despite not having any of the ingredients for the clay mixture readily at hand. It was however located near extensive wooded mountain ranges that provided fuel for the kilns; the clay ingredients were shipped in. The earliest Iznik examples owe a great debt in their form and decoration to a long established tradition of metalwork, as well as to the great Ming blue and white wares which were held up as the gold standard of ceramic production for the Iznik potter to emulate. The Turks, however, soon progressed beyond this stage and between roughly 1490 and 1520 worked in something of an international style where designs were taken from mostly Turkish and Persian native sources. Then, around 1520, the first polychrome style was developed which included a sage/olive green and a pale purple/manganese. This coincides with a great period of miniature and manuscript painting and you see this style spill over
into ceramic decoration with detailed designs flowing over the entire object. By the second quarter of the 16th century there seem to be no boundaries between drawing, painting, and ceramics, as great tiles were produced with vibrant detail and great vitality. It is actually now believed that artists were trained so that they could go from miniature painting to ceramics decoration without making any major changes of technique. By the 1550s you have a second round of polychrome development with the introduction of red (which is actually a slip rather than a glaze and sits proudly on the surface) and, finally, a bright green which was most difficult to perfect as it often ran into the other glazes. This is the period that produced all the great classic panels and tiles for which Iznik is most famous. This second polychrome style lasted well into the 17th century and influenced what is being made in Turkey even today. Needless to say, the variety of design and decoration appears endless. Even Walter, who has been studying this subject for decades, says that he discovers something “new” from the 1580s several times a month! Europe began to import and imitate Iznik pieces from rather early on. Turkish pieces appear in Venice by the 1520s and by the 1720s Padua is specifically concentrating on producing Iznik-inspired ceramics in the polychrome style. This European interest in Iznik pottery reached a peak between 1880 and 1900 and had a huge infleunce on the studio art pottery movement. Theodore Deck was the first great studio potter and for him the Turkish tradition was of supreme importance. A pupil of Deck’s, Edmund Lachenal, continued in this tradition, as did the great English designer, William deMorgan. In France there was Samson, in Florence the Pantagali family, in Rome the Castellani, even potteries in Worcester, Hungary, Vienna, Luxembourg, Rhodes, Jerusalem, Marrakech, and Japan made some versions of Iznik! The real Iznik potteries in Turkey started to die out in the 17th century and the tradition was kept alive by a handful of Turkish and Armenian potters into the 20th century. There has been a recent revival, with factories such as Iznik Classics offering creditable imitations of the Iznik style. The European versions of this popular Continued on page 3
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European Copies of Turkish Ceramics sometimes ended up in museum collections as Iznik. Continued from page 2 ware run the gamut from sentimental and orientalist Keep your eyes open as there are many fine pieces that knick-knacks to beautifully executed examples that have still turn up!
Top, from left: Iznik first and second polychrome styles (ca. 1530-1555 and 1558-1650, respectively); Samson, Paris (19th ccentury) Middle row: Venice, 1520-30; Padua (ca. 1630) Bottom row: Deck, France; De Morgan, England; Castellani, Rome
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Rose Kerr on Chinese Blue and White from Tang to Ming Reviewed by Jeff Brown The CSC was pleased and honored to welcome Rose Kerr, Keeper Emeritus, Far Eastern Department, V & A Museum, to speak on Thursday, April 23 at the College Club. Rose addressed a full house and discussed “Chinese Blue and White from Tang to Ming”. Blue and white is, of course, a white porcelain decorated with an underglaze blue derived from the mineral cobalt. The Chinese, in world ceramic terms, came to use cobalt at a relatively late date. Cobalt was used in Iraq, in Mesopotamia, 2000 years before it was ever used in China. The first cobalt you find came into China around the 4th or 3rd century B.C. in the form of glass beads. Beads were a highly prized form of international trade currency and their use was known throughout the world. Beads started out, again, in Iraq and spread into North Africa, Europe, South America and eventually China. The Chinese soon began emulating these Middle Eastern beads, producing their own versions with cobalt decoration. And then, almost as soon as cobalt appears, it mysteriously disappears, and its use doesn’t reappear for centuries. This seems to be a theme with cobalt in Chinese history. Cobalt reappears during the great Tang Dynasty in the 7th-8th centuries. At this point it was used in lead glazes. When cobalt is mined it is often found with associated materials such as iron and manganese and copper as contaminants. If you fire a pot with underglaze cobalt at a high temperature in a reducing atmosphere, these contaminants actually help the cobalt develop its true blue color. But, if you fire the cobalt in a lead glaze in an oxidizing atmosphere, those same impurities will taint the color. So when you use this lead glaze you have to have a very pure cobalt, as free of contaminants as possible. Tang Dynasty pieces demonstrate the use of some of the purest cobalt in the world. This early cobalt was imported down the great silk route from Kashan (in Iran)—a very precious commodity of the day. And it is only a recent archaeological discovery that proved blue and white was actually produced as early as the Tang period. It was made at a kiln in northern China, transported to the southeast coast and shipped out in an export trade. And it appears to have been made exclusively for export as it wasn’t found at any
other archaelogical sites or tomb excavations—only at the production site and at export shipping sites and in shipwrecks. The forms and decorations of these pieces bear out this conclusion, as they conform to Middle Eastern tastes—the tastes of the intended clients. Then there is another mysterious pause. The use of cobalt again disappears for centuries during the Sung Dynasty. One theory is that the Sung porcelains were of such beauty, form, and quality that they didn’t need superfluous decoration. So another 400 plus years pass without evidence of cobalt decoration in China. The next great turn of events is the conquest of China by the Mongols from the north in 1279. Much to its surprise, China is no longer the center of its own universe, but simply a part of one of the largest empires in the history of the world with all manner of “foreign influences” pouring in. It is during this period that the kilns are established at Jingdezhen to provide porcelain for the Imperial City; the kiln’s first director being, ironically enough, Nepalese, not Chinese. There was all manner of trade being opened up with other parts of the Empire, and blue and white reappears to meet new demands from the Middle East, as well as, surprisingly enough, for court and domestic consumption. Blue and white production takes off and new production techniques are quickly mastered to meet the new demands. The Mongols were a short-lived dynasty and in 1368 you have the re-establishment of Chinese rule with the first Ming Emperor. During the Ming period we begin to differentiate porcelains by the individual reigns. The Ming were an inward-looking dynasty, reluctant to have contact with foreigners, and so the importation of fine Persian cobalt is cut off. Early Ming pieces suffer, therefore, being painted with inferior domestic cobalt. By 1424, processing of cobalt becomes more refined and the strong, beautiful blues are back. Eventually a decorating technique called doucai is developed where finely delineated images are drawn in underglaze blue and then meticulously colored in with overglaze enamels. From about 1500 onwards blue and white production is stepped up and there is a greater differentiation between the quality of the pieces produced for export Continued on page 5
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Chinese Blue and White Continued from page 4 and those made for domestic use. The painting is different, the quality of the blue is different, and so this is really the beginning of the story of Chinese porcelain in the great age of export to the West. The roads diverge here between porcelain produced for two different worlds.
So it is interesting to see that blue and white, what most people think of as that quintessentially Chinese porcelain, really was inspired by outside influences and developed over a long period in a series of fits and starts, before it came to be that iconic Chinese product. See also illustration on back page.
Clockwise, from top left: Yuan wine cup (14th c.); Tang plate from ‘Belitung’ shipwreck (ca. 826); Stem cup with cobalt-blue and copper-red decoration, Yongle reign (1403-24); Brush pot (ca. 1640) in silver-gilt mount by Wolfgang Howzer, London (1660-70); Kraak dish, 1610-35; Doucai-decorated dishes, Chenghua reign (1465-87);
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Bits and Pieces Here is a sampling of the pieces brought by CSC members to our annual “Bits and Pieces” session.
Top row, left to right: George Orr ink-stand; Majolica fish-dish, Portugal, ca. 1900; Chinese-export dish, Kangxi period Middle row: Unusual tin-glazed earthenware plate, probably continental; Newhall coffee can, ca. 1760; Liverpool plate, ca. 1760 Bottom row: Dedham ‘Volcanic Pottery” jar by Hugh Robertson, ca. 1898; Caldwell figurine of Falstaff, pearlware, ca.1800; Slipware Jar, probably North Devon, perhaps by Mary Margaret Fishley, ca. 1900
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Upcoming Ceramics Events CSC Meetings Meeting at 1 PM at the College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston 5/28, Annual Meeting and Tea; Learning to Mix a Jingdezhen Sling: Highlights of the American Ceramic Circle’s 2008 tour to China, Karina Corrigan, Curator, Asian Export Art, Peabody Essex Museum; C.S.C. Member. We congratulate Karina on her promotion! Connecticut Ceramics Study Circle Meetings For information call 203-622-1128 5/21, Secrets of the Potter’s Art, Robert Hunter 6/15, Twentieth Anniversary celebration. Auctions (Note: the auction houses are increasingly laconic in their sales calendars. We may, therefore, have missed some interesting auctions) General: 5/30, Thomaston’s, Thomaston, Maine; featuruing fine Meissen and Chinese porcelain Asian: 5/27, Christie’s, Hong Kong (Chinese) 9/15, Christie’s, New York (Chinese) 9/17, Christie’s, New York (Japanese & Korean) European: 5/26, Sotheby’s, London 7/11, Skinner, Boston; featuring the Elizabeth Chellis Collection of Wedgwood (Elizabeth Chellis was a founder of the Wedgwood International Seminar and of the Wedgwood Society of Boston). Also included in the sale are two additional private collections of Wedgwood, and another of 18th century English pottery. . Exhibitions and fairs Setting the President’s Table: American Presidential China from the McNeil Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Concord Museum, Concord, MA, until 10/12 Alistair Sampson Collection of English Creamware, ongoing at the Flynt Center, Historic Deerfield
Ceramics from the Pflueger Collection, ongoing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; includes several oversized animal figurines from Augustus the Strong’s Meissen menagerie At the Sackler Gallery, Washington, DC: Taking Shape: Ceramics in Southeast Asia; Vietnamese Ceramics from the Red River Delta; Korean Ceramics; Contemporary Japanese Ceramics; Golden Seams: The Japanese Art of Mending Ceramics; Arts of the Islamic World (including ceramics); Black & White: Chinese ceramics from the 10th14th centuries; Ancient Chinese Pottery and Bronzes. Conferences and workshops: Eastfield Village Workshop: Out of the Woods: A Staffordshire Family of Potters & Its Influence on 18th & 19th-century British Pottery, 6/26-28. Great changes swept across the British pottery industry during the era of industrialization. Many of the designs & innovations that propelled the advances were the work of members of the Wood Family. Lecturers and demonstrators include Miranda Goodby, Jonathan Rickard, Don Carpentier, Ted Gallagher, Louise Richardson, Barbara Magid, and Stephen Apisa. Call 518-7662422 or email dcsapottery1@fairpoint.net. A History of Dedham Pottery: Jim Kaufman, CSC member and former president, is giving a one-day class, June 1, 10AM-12PM at Tufts University Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Medford, MA. Cost of the course is $25. To register call 617-627-5699. This session will focus on the creative genius of fifth-generation masterpotter Hugh Robertson and the influences of Asian art and ceramics on his creations. Tours: Study Tour to France with the American Ceramic Circle: 9/28-10/8. Call Meg MacDonald at 1-877716-1776 or email meg@travelmuse.net.
Please send comments/contributions to: Yonathan Bard, 6 Holland Street, Newton, MA 02458; telephone (617) 244-7688, fax (617) 965-2897, e-mail (the preferred venue!) doryon@rcn.com
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Contents A message from our president ................................................................................................ 1 Walter Denny on European copies of Turkish ceramics, report by Jeff Brown .................. 1 Rose Kerr on Chinese blue and white, report by Jeff Brown ............................................... 4 Bits and Pieces ......................................................................................................................... 6 Upcoming Ceramics Events .................................................................................................... 7 We regret that we were unable to review Jim Kaufman’s lecture on Dedham Pottery in this issue. We hope to make amends in the next one.
Dish for the export market to Japan, Tianqi mark and period (1621-27)