Antique Porcelain

Ancient Figurines
Most ancient figurines have come down as funerary objects. They have their origin in the institutions of immolation or burying the living with the dead.
Immolation was practiced in the period of slavery. In 1950, excavations made of a Shang Dynasty(c.17th-11th century B.C.) aristocrat's tomb at Wuguan Village, Anyang, Henan Province, brought to light the remains of 79 slaves who had been buried alive with their dead master. Besides, in 27 pits arranged in rows in front and at the back of the tomb were discovered, bured en masse, the skeletons of 207 other slaves beheaded in immolation.
The cruel custom of buring the living with the dead, though replaced by the burying of tomb figurines, lingered on and was practiced in isolated cases under nearly every dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty(1368-1644), according to contemporary notes, a human sacrifice was entertained to a sumptuous temple to meet his last day before being led down to an underground temple to meet his horrible end. At the funeral of an emperor, palace maids were reportedly pushed, one after another, onto bed-like racks, and their heads into nooses, and were hanged after the racks had been removed. When Emperor Changzu of the Ming died in 1424, sixteen persons were buried alive with him. In the eastern and western "wells" on either side of the Changling Mausoleum (the largest of the Ming Tombs) are the remains of his immolated concubines.
After the Qin and Han dynasties, tomb figurines began to be used instead of human beings. And vast numbers of them, dating from the Warring States Period(475-221 B.C.) down to the Ming(1368-1644), have been unearthed. They are of various descriptions but most are made of pottery and porcelain, next come wood and lacquer, and occasionally jade. They represent people of different status and walks-court officials, generals, cavaliers, attendants, musicians, dancers and acrobats. As a rule, they are nicely modeled in different postures, constituting a valuable part of China's ancient art.
Jade figurines first appeared in China during the 8th to 3rd century B.C. A number of tiny jade figures were unearthed in 1974 from a mausoleum of the ancient state of Zhongshan. Most of them appear to be females, though some are lads. They have their hair done up in buns on the head-double buns for women and single one for the boys. They all stand, holding their hands before the chest. The female are clad in tight-sleeved dresses, buttoned down the middle, and the chequered long skirts. The hairdo and costume must be true-to-life reproductions of those prevalent in Zhongshan at the time.
The Qin(221-206 B.C) and Han(206 B.C-220 A.D.) dynasties are noted for the high quality and large numbers of pottery figurines they produced. In 1974 the famous terracotta warriors and horses of Qin Shi Huang(the first Emperor of the Qin) were discovered just east of his mausoleum. The excavation is still going on, and Vault No.1 alone is expected to yield 6,000 of them. The lifesized figures of men and horses are in neat battle formation, with the men holding real bronze weapons of the time and reflecting the formidable might of the legions of the First Emperor.
In the winter of 1980, another valuable find was made to the west of the mausoleum. Two bronze carriages, standing one behind the other, were discovered. Each was drawn by a team of four bronze horses and driven by a driver, also made of bronze. All figures are half life-size, weighing a total of 1,800 kilogrammes. They are the earliest, largest, most elaborate and best-preserved models of ancient bronze carriages, complete with animals and drivers, even found in this country.
Each discovery at and near the Qing Shi Huang Mausoleum has caused-and will cause-a stir among archaeologists the world over. Han Dynasty figurines show clear influences of the Qin, but are smaller in size. An impressive discovery was made a few years ago in a Han tomb at Yangjiawan, Xianyang, Shaanxi Province of a total of 3,000 pained pottery figures. Most of the standing figurines represent warriors, and some of them are equestrians. Compared with the human figures, the horses are more expressive; some stand quietly and others rear up with an unheared neigh. They must be truthful portraits in sculpture of the foot and mounted troops of the Han dynasty.
With the flourishing of ceramics during the Tang, Song and Ming Dynasties(10th-17th century), the tomb figurines of this long period are mostly glazed pottery and porcelain, among which the "tricoloured glazed pottery of the Tang" is world-famous. Out of the ancient tombs of Xi'an and Luoyang have been unearthed many colour-glazed females, horses and camels. Noteworthy especially are the pottery camel drivers with their deep-set eyes, protruding noses and hairy faces, evidently Central Asians who plied the Silk Road with their caravans. The "Tri-coloured Tangs" represent in effect a special handicraft art catering solely to the funerary needs of the aristocracy at the heyday of China's feudalism.
Wooden figurines have been a much longer history which extends back to the Warring States Period(475-221 B.C.). They have been found in many ancient tombs of different ages and in different localities. The tomb of Zhu Tan, prince of Lu(the tenth son of the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming), situated in Zouxian, Shandong province, yielded in 1974 a total of 406 painted wood figures in the formation of a long funeral procession. It consists of three parts: musicians leading in front, followed by attendants and military officers in the middle, and civil officials bringing up the rear. The figures-a sculptured model of an early Ming(2nd half of the 14th century) funeral-are on display in the Provincial Museum of Shandong in Jinan.
Some wood figurines have been found in the Dingling Mausoleum of the Ming Tombs. They are few in number and crude in workmanship, showing that wood figures were already going out of vogue towards the end of the dynasty.
During the Qing Dynasty(1616-1911), paper figures appeared; they were not buried with the dead but were burnt at funerals to follow the dead to the nether world. After the fall of the Qing, tomb figures have fallen completely into disuse.

Lacquerware
Lacquer is a natural substance obtained from the lacquer tree which has its home in China, a country still leading the world in lacquer resources. Much of the country is suitable for growing the tree, but most of the output comes from five provinces-Shaanxi, Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan. Raw lacquer is the sap of the lacquer tree, which hardens in contact with air. A tree becomes productive 3-5 years after planting, and entails hard work on the part of the tapper. He can only get the latex in June and July each year and must tap it in the predawn hours before the cockis crow and sunrise. For the sun would reduce the moisture in the air, stopping the flow of the latex. Lacquerware has a long history which extends back to the remote ages in China. From the Neolithic remains at Tuanjie Villiage and Meiyan Township(both in Wujiang County, Jiangsu province) were unearthed in 1955 a number of lacquer-painted black pottery objects, two of which, a cup and a pot, were discovered intact and found to bear patterns painted in lacquer after the objects had been fired. They are the earliest lacquered articles even discovered in China and are now kep in the Museum of Nanjing. Before the invention of the Chinese ink, lacquer had been used for writing. Twenty-eight bamboo clips found in a Warring States(475-221 B.C) tomb at Changtaiguan,Xinyang, Henan province, bear a list of the burial objects with the characters written in lacquer. Lacquerware is moisture-proof, resistant to heat, acid and alkali, and its colour and luster are highly durable, adding beauty to its practical use. Beijing, Fuzhou and YangZhou are the cities leading in the production of Chinese lacquerware. The making of Beijing lacquerware starts with a brass or wooden body. After preparation and polishing, it is coated with several dozen up to hundreds of layers of lacquer, reaching a total thickness of 5 to 18 millimetres. Then, gravers will cut into the hardened lacquer, creating "carved painting" of landscapes, human figures, flowers and birds. It is then finished by drying and polishing. Traditional Beijing lacquer objects are in the forms of chairs, screens, tea tables, vases, etc. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, an enthusiast for lacquerware, had his coffin decorated with carved lacquer. Yangzhou lacquer articles are distinguished not only by carving in relief but by exquisite patterns inlaid with gems, gold,ivory and mother of pearl. The products are normally screens, cabinets, tables, chairs, vases, trays, cups,boxes and ashtrays. Fuzhou is well-known for the "bodiless lacquerware", one of the "Three Treasures" of Chinese arts and crafts(the other two being Beijing cloisonné and Jindezhen porcelain). The bodiless lacquerware starts with a body of clay, plaster or wood. Grass linen or silk is pasted onto it, layer after layer, with lacquer as the binder. The original body is removed after the outer cloth shell has dried in the shade. This is then smoothed with putty, polished, and coated with layers of lacquer. After being carved with colourful patterns, it becomes the bodiless lacquerware of extremely light weight and exquisite finish.

Porcelain of Jingdezhen
Jingdezhen, formerly spelt Ching The Chen and known as the "Ceramics Metropolis" of China, is a synonym for Chinese porcelain. Variably called Xinping or Changnanzhen in history, it is situated in the northeastern part of Jiangxi province in a small basin rich in fine kaolin, hemmed in by mountains which keep it supplied with firewood from their conifers. People there began to produce ceramics as early as 1,800 years ago in the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the Jingde Period(1004-1007), emperor Zhenzong of Song Dynasty decreed that Changnanzhen should produce the porcelain used by the imperial court, with each inscribed at the bottom "made in the reign of Jingde.: From then on people began to call all chinaware bearing such in scriptions "porcelain of Jingdezhen". The ceramic industry experienced further development at Jingdezhen during the Ming and Qing dynasties or from the 14th to the 19th century, when skills became perfected and the general quality more refined; government kilns were set up to cater exclusively to the need of the imperial house. The leading center of the porcelain industry, Jingdezhen has been put under state protection also as an important historical city. With 133 ancient buildings and cultural sites, it is a tourist town attracting large numbers of visitors from home and abroad.

Cloisonne
Cloisonne, in which China excels, is known as jingtailan in the country. It first appeared toward the end of the Yuan Dynasty in the mid-14th century, flourished and reached its peak of development during the reign of the Ming Emperor jingtai(1450-1457). And as the objects were mostly in blue(lan) colour, cloisonné came to be called by its present name Jingtailan. A Jingtailan article has a copper body. The design on it is formed by copper wire stuck on with a vegetable glue. Coloured enamel is filled in with different colours kep apart by the wire strips. After being fired four or five times in a kiln, the workpiece is polished and gilded into a colourful and luxtrous work of art. During the Ming Dynasty(1368-1644), cloisonneware was mainly supplied for use in the imperial palace, in the form of incense-burners, vases, jars, boxes and candlesticks-all in imitation of antique porcelain and bronze. Present-day production, with Beijing as the leading center,stresses the adding of ornamental beauty to things that are useful. The artifacts include vases, plates, jars,boxes, tea sets, lamps, lanterns, tables, stools, drinking vessels and small articles for the desk. A pair of big cloisonné horses have been made in recent years, each measuring 2.1 metres high and 2.4 metres long, and weighing about 700 kilograms. They took eight months to finish, involving the labour of hundreds of workers and 60 tons of coal for the firing. They represent the largest object even made in cloisonné in the 500 years since the art was born. Cloisonne ware bears on the surface vitreous enamal which, like porcelain, is hard but brittle, so it must not be knocked against anything hard. To remove dust from it, it should be whisked lightly with a soft cloth. Avoid heavy wiping with a wet cloth, for this might eventually wear off the gilding.

Celadon
Celadon, a famous type of ancient Chinese stoneware, came into being during the period of the Five Dynasties(907-960). It is characterized by simple but refined shapes, jade-like glaze, solid substance and a distinctive style. As the celadonware produced in Longquan County. Zhejiang Province, is most valued, so it is also generally called Longquan qingci. Its Chinese name, qingci, means "greenish porcelain". Why then is it known in the West as 'celadon". Celadon was the hero of the French writer Honore Urfe's romance L' Astree(1610) the lover of the heroine Astree. He was represented as a young man in green and his dress became all the rage in Europe. And it was just about this time that the Chinese Qingci made its debut in Paris and won acclaim. People compared its colour to Celadon's suit and started to call the porcelain " celadon", a name which has stuck and spread to other countries. Now, new products of Longquan qingci have been developed to radiate with fresh luster; they include eggshell china and underglazed painting.

Antiques: A Dynasty in Which Pottery Ruled

By WENDY MOONAN from the New York Times, March of 2001

he Tang dynasty (A.D. 618 to 906) was unlike any other era in China, or in the world for that matter. It was a time of peace, prosperity and thriving international trade.

"The Tang Empire was very powerful and very rich," said Khalil Rizk, director of the Chinese Porcelain Company in Manhattan. "It had a mighty army." Its borders stretched from the Caspian Sea in the west to Korea in the east, and from Manchuria in the north to Vietnam.

Like Constantinople, the Tang capital city of Changan (the modern Xian) had two million inhabitants, about what it has today. The government supported a large class of Confucian literati who served as civil servants and ran the country well. The crime rate was at an all-time low, with prisons reportedly empty. Inflation was under control. The poor had enough rice to eat and the ability to pay taxes.

"It was one of the most sophisticated periods of Chinese history," said Theow H. Tow, Christie's international director of Chinese ceramics and works of art. "China attracted Persians, Indians and Jews. Last summer they found the site of a seventh-century Christian church, so there were already Christians there, too."

The silk route opened China to foreign ideas, religions, culture and lifestyles. Foreign merchants established markets in Changan to sell exotic spices and aromatics, camels, horses, tropical birds, jewelry, ivory and furs.

"The Chinese tended to be inward- looking," Mr. Tow said. "The Tang is one of the few dynasties that looked outward."

The first 137 years of the dynasty were also a golden age for Chinese art. "Nowhere else in the world were they making better pottery at the time," Mr. Rizk said. Tang potters made elegant earthenware vessels for everyday use and sculptures for tombs, including the Tang horses and camels so prized in the West.

The potters also created figurines representing exotic foreigners, with their odd physiognomy, costume and customs. "Sometimes the depictions of foreigners were like caricatures," Mr. Tow said. Horse grooms, for example, could have had wildly curly hair, bushy beards, big noses or bulging eyes.

Many of the Tang ceramics on the market today are tomb sculptures and vessels. The Chinese did not hedge their bets. They planned for the afterlife years in advance, buying hundreds of pottery figures and sculptures.

"The princes, princesses, wealthy ministers and distinguished nobles surrounded themselves with all the extravagances that money could buy, not only in life, but also in death," wrote the Chinese ceramics scholar Margaret Medley in a 1989 catalog for a show at the Dixon Gallery in Memphis, "Tang Sancai Pottery From the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman."

Forty-eight pieces from the Hartman exhibition will be auctioned at Christie's in New York on March 20. The preview begins on Tuesday. "It's a good snapshot of life at the time," Mr. Tow said.

Mr. Hartman, who owns Rare Art Inc., a Manhattan gallery specializing in British and American silver and Chinese art, said that he and his wife, Simone, had collected Tang ceramics for 30 years and that he hoped to sell his pottery to one institution or collector for $1.3 million. If one buyer does not reach his reserve price, the collection will be sold in individual lots.

The Hartmans' pottery is all sancai (meaning three-colored) glazed earthenware in the colors of straw and amber (made from iron oxide) and green (from copper oxide). Sancai usually also includes blue glaze, which is rarer and was made from oxides with imported cobalt.

Other Tang sculptures are for sale in Sotheby's Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art auction on March 22. In addition, Mark Richards, a Los Angeles dealer, and Alberto Manuel Cheung, a private dealer in Manhattan, are bringing Tang ceramics to the Arts of Pacific Asia Show at the 69th Regiment Armory at Lexington Avenue and 26th Street, from March 22 to 25.

Mr. Cheung is selling a figure of a Tang woman playing a polo-like game on a horse whose legs are outstretched, similar to one exhibited last year at the International Museum of the Horse in Lexington, Ky. Nicholas Grindley, a London dealer, has two fine early unglazed Tang horses and two foreign grooms, which he is showing at the Kate Ganz Gallery, 25 East 73rd Street in Manhattan, from Wednesday through March 25.

The Hartman pottery is remarkable in its diversity. "The sculptures are of people who were part and parcel of Tang life," Mr. Tow said. There is a courtier, a groom, a falconer, an entertainer, a dancing lady, a foreign wine merchant and various animals. "They depicted native animals like buffalo and boar and foreign ones like camels and lions," Mr. Tow said. "The lion looks a bit like a pug, but they'd probably never seen a lion."

There are also jars, a water pot shaped like a beast, an ambrosia vase and a ewer with the head of a phoenix. The provenances of many pieces can be traced to the 1920's. Others were acquired at auction decades ago.

Tang artists were not the first to make tomb sculptures. Clay tomb figures go back to at least the third century B.C., before the Han dynasty. But Tang potters were more accomplished than their predecessors. The modeling is more subtle and individualized and the glazes are shinier and more colorful.

Perhaps the most extraordinary figure in the Christie's sale is a charming court lady seated on a rattan drum stool looking at a round mirror in her left hand. Her elaborate hairdo has two round buns. She rests her right foot on her knee, while one loose shoe, with a pointed toe, rests on the base. She wears a figure- revealing green gown with blue sleeves and has an amber throw on her shoulder.

Probably made in a mold, the figure has an unglazed head with a subtly carved, hand-painted face. The estimate is $170,000 to $200,000. "She cost me more than my apartment on Park Avenue," said Mr. Hartman, who bought his apartment in the 1970's.

Another striking piece is a blue water buffalo with striped brown horns, huge ears and a plaintive look in his eyes. His tender, a small boy, sleeps on his back, the tether in his hand. The boy's straw hat rests on his hip. "This is one of the earliest depictions of a boy on the back of a water buffalo," Mr. Tow said.

Mr. Hartman added, "I bought it 20 years ago at Christie's East when it was being sold as a fake." Its estimate is $80,000 to $100,000.

According to Christie's, the only known similar depiction is of a cow with a boy wearing a straw hat in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington.

Why are the Hartmans selling their collection? "I have eclectic tastes," Mr. Hartman said. "I collect jade and early English silver. In my gallery I sell English and American silver, Japanese cloissoné, silver and ivory. I've been partial to the Tang, but times change. I'd rather put my resources into English silver now."