The striking glaze effects seen here are usually attributed to the kilns at Shiwan, a district of the provincial town Foshan which is located near to Guangzhou, better known in the West as Canton, in the Guangdong province. But the place of manufacture is here clearly advertised by the mark on the base which attributes it to the well known potteries of Jingdezhen, for centuries one of China’s most prolific producers of porcelains for both the domestic and export markets. This particular glaze, though, seems to be a late twentieth century creation with no obvious precedents from the past. Just possibly it derived from an accident of the firing process which was then deliberately imitated. Certainly, the ‘look’ is modern and the interior of the neck reveals one of the hallmarks of the very late pieces made at Jingdezhen where the small but regular potting rings indicate manufacture by machine rather than the hand of a potter (see image 8). The sandy and slightly coarse paste of the foot is fully consistent with this.

By repute, similar vases were bought new in the 1980s so there is, at least, a degree of age here and the overall effects combine sophisticated techniques with inventive decoration to produce a piece of considerable and striking appeal.

(As sometimes happened with the manufacture of larger ceramic items, this vase emerged from the kiln with a slight ‘lean’ when viewed from certain angles, probably due to irregular shrinkage of the clay body during the firing process. Images (11) and (12) are intended to highlight the ‘fault’ but the final image (13) shows how this can easily be corrected with the addition of a wood stand built up inside to provide corrective support.)