An Unusual Kangxi Blue and White Square Bottle c.1700.

Kangxi 1662 - 1722

An Unusual Kangxi Blue and White Square Bottle c.1700. This slab made bottle is unusual as most Kangxi examples have a different top, they are unglazed and vertical, this is then covered with a blue and white porcelain top. Very few of these Kangxi bottles have a flaring rim like the present example. The earlier forms of square blue and white bottles dated from the late Ming dynasty, and the later ones from the Kangxi and Yongzheng, they are based on a European glass form. They were probably used for alcoholic drinks such as gin. Smaller square blue and white bottles were also produced in Japan, at Arita, for the Dutch market, they have the Dutch East India Company, Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, emblem VOC to the base. These initials look rather blackish-blue as they were painted on the base without glaze being applied. The panels with arched tops are painted with flowering lotus growing from a pond or lake, alternating with flowering chrysanthemum. The base is unglazed.

 

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Condition
No damage.
Size
Height 20 cm (7.8 inches)
Provenance
N/A
Stock number
27398
£ 1750
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Photos

Information

Ming Examples at the British Museum.

 

An early version from the Ming dynasty is at the British Museum

A group of earlier square Ming porcelain bottles is at British Museum

 

For More Information about the history of square bottles

Nested Containers for Maritime Journeys: Tools of Aromatic Diplomacy around the Late Seventeenth- and Early Eighteenth-Century Indian Ocean

 

A Japanese blue and white bottle made for the Dutch East India Company
A Japanese blue and white bottle made for the Dutch East India Company

 

Fig. 10. Case with nine bottles, ca. 1680–1700. Batavia (box) and Japan (bottles). Calamander wood, underglaze painted porcelain, silver, velvet; box: 10⅝ × 10⅛ × 6½ in. (27 × 25.5 × 16.5 cm); bottle height, with cap: 6 in. (15 cm). Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, NG-444. Image in the public domain.
Fig. 10. Case with nine bottles, ca. 1680–1700. Batavia (box) and Japan (bottles). Calamander wood, underglaze painted porcelain, silver, velvet; box: 10⅝ × 10⅛ × 6½ in. (27 × 25.5 × 16.5 cm); bottle height, with cap: 6 in. (15 cm). Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, NG-444. Image in the public domain.