In the seventeenth century, as the Ming dynasty declined in China, Iranian potters in Kirman and Nishapur increased the production of blue-and-white stonepaste ceramics for domestic use and export. Some of these wares closely follow Chinese prototypes, while others, such as this small gourd-shaped vase, show ideas developed by Chinese potters used as a catalyst for distinctive creations. One side of the vase depicts a sketchily drawn walking crane in a Chinese style, while on the other side decorative rock forms, vegetation, and other floating elements follow Iranian tradition. The result resonates with Moore’s diverse collecting interests and the hybrid designs they inspired.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Vase in the Form of a Double Gourd
Date:second half of the 17th century
Geography:Attributed to Iran
Medium:Stonepaste; painted under transparent glaze
Dimensions:Ht. 5 1/2 in. (14 cm) Diam. 2 3/4 in. (7 cm)
Classification:Ceramics
Credit Line:Edward C. Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891
Accession Number:91.1.116
Vase
In the seventeenth century, as the Ming dynasty declined in China, Iranian potters in Kirman and Nishapur increased the production of blue-andwhite stonepaste ceramics for both domestic use and export. Some of these wares closely followed Chinese prototypes, while others, such as this small gourd-shaped vase, employed ideas developed by Chinese potters as a catalyst fordistinctive forms. Consisting of two bulbs with rounded flanges created by pinching the stonepaste body before firing, the vase sits on a low foot and has a rim decorated with blue-underglaze X’s, dots, and vertical lines. The combination of Chinese and Iranian aesthetic sensibilities resonates with Moore’s diverse collecting interests and the hybrid designs they inspired.[1]
One side of the vase is decorated with a crane walking through foliage while another, without the customary spindly legs, flies above. While popular with Safavid potters, cranes entered their repertoire as a result of Chinese prototypes. The birds are sketchily drawn, but have what resembles the crowning feathers of a variety of crane native only to Africa (Balearica pavonina). The rays around the birds’ round heads and eyes are thus most likely a creative flourish. The other side of the vase is decorated with rock forms, vegetation, a palmette leaf rising from the base to the waist, and a leafy stalk climbing up the entire side and terminating in a blossom with large petals and visible stamens. The small floating elements throughout, made up of several parallel lines and a hook, resemble cloud motifs on a blue-and-white platter from Kirman dated to the last quarter of the seventeenth century.[2]
Sheila R. Canby in [Higgins Harvey 2021]
Footnotes:
1. This vase appears in an early list of the Moore collection as number 898; see "Complete List, E. C. Moore Collection, Belonging to the Dr. I. H. Hall Office," undated [1891–96], Edward C. Moore Collection files, Office of the Secretary Records, MMA Archives. Although the numbering of the list is not wholly understood, it appears that the order of the items may reflect the chronology of acquisition, in which case this object would rank among Moore’s earliest acquisitions.
2. British Museum, London (96.0626.50). See Canby, Sheila R., The Golden Age of Persian Art, 1501-–1722. London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by the British Museum Press, 1999, fig. 162, which reads the date as 1109/1697–98; Golombek, Lisa. "Dominant Fashions and Distinctive Styles." In Lisa Golombek, Robert B. Mason, Patricia Proctor, and Eileen Reilly, Persian Pottery in the First Global Age: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, pp. 57–121. Arts and Archeology of the Islamic World 1. Leiden: Brill, 2014, p. 99, where the date is read as 1090/1679–80.
Edward C. Moore (American), New York (until d. 1891; bequeathed to MMA)
Beyazit, Deniz, Maryam Ekhtiar, and Sheila R. Canby. Collecting Inspiration : Edward C. Moore at Tiffany & Co., edited by Medill Higgins Harvey. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2021. no. 130, pp. 23, 196–97, ill.
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