A Rare Ge-type Double Gourd Flask Ming Dynasty

of squashed bulbous form with flat sides, the circular body sitting on a short rectangular foot, rising to a slender neck, surmounted by a garlic bulb head with neat circular mouth, with a pair of arched handles emerging from the upper bulb and terminating on the sloping shoulder, covered overall with a thick creamy-brown glaze suffused with an irregular network of long black-stained crackles with a few golden threads

Collection of Lord Cunliffe.

Exhibition of Ju and Kuan Wares, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1952, cat.no.82.  

It is rare to find Ming dynasty flasks of this form with Ge-type glaze. A related white-glazed flask, excavated from the wasteheaps of the Ming imperial kilns, was included in the Chang Foundation exhibition Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Taipei, 1996, cat.no. 91.

 

The present flask was possibly inspired by Song dynasty ‘Guan’ flasks, see a ‘Guan’ moonflask with circular body and lingzhi fungus handles, from the collection of R. B. Hobart, included in the Exhibition of Ju and Kuan Wares, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1952, cat.no. 57.