A PAIR OF CELADON-GLAZED OGEE DISHES QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY, JINGWEITANG ZHI MARKS |

each of ogee form, the interior and exterior covered overall with a pale bluish-green glaze interrupted by a brown rim, the base left white and inscribed in underglaze blue with a four-character mark reading Jingweitang zhi ('Made for the Hall of Veneration of Respect') within a double square, wood stands

Jingweitang was the studio name of Li Hu (alias Duanren, style name Zhucun) a native of Cixi, a city within the sub-provincial city of Ningbo, Zhejiang province. Ming Wilson, in the exhibition catalogue Rare Marks on Chinese Ceramics, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1998, quotes Wang Qingzheng to suggest that porcelains bearing the Jingweitang mark actually belonged to the Manchu high official Agedunbu (see p. 114). Although no supporting evidence is available, Jingweitang wares were noted in Taoya [Ceramic Elegances] of 1906 by the government official Chen Liu (1863-1929) as porcelain with celadon glaze (ibid.). See a celadon-glazed bowl of comparable shape and mark, together with a matching cover, from the collection of E.T. Hall, sold at Christie's London, 7th June 2004, lot 33 (part lot). Vessels with the same mark, celadon glaze and brown rim also include a bowl and a dish in the Sir Percival David collection, now in the British Museum, London, the bowl included in the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition, op.cit., cat. no. 47, and the dish published in Margaret Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Ming and Qing Monochrome Wares, London, 1989, coll. no. A568; and a covered bowl sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29th May 2007, lot 1545.

However, not all vessels with this mark are celadon-glazed which may be due to the continued use of the hall for several generations and the subsequent later production of porcelains; see a vase covered with a brown glaze in imitation of a bronze vessel, illustrated in Qingdai ciqi shangjian [Appreciation of Qing Dynasty Porcelain], Shanghai, 1994, pl. 151; and a pair of blue-glazed cups and saucers sold at Christie's New York, 18th September 2003, lot 355.