The moon has all the time been an object of contemplation and marvel. It has additionally been a muse for artists in all mediums.
The moon has a particular that means in Chinese language tradition and symbolizes peace, prosperity, and household reunion; it’s also the topic of many legends and poems. Proficient ceramic artisans additionally designed a particular vessel in its form: the moon flask. These hand-painted flask-shaped vases are often called “baoyue ping,” which interprets to “embracing the moon.”
Collectors enthusiastically embrace these vases right now as lovely ornamental objects and for his or her historic significance. Some examples are additionally extremely beneficial: two uncommon moon flasks offered in 2023 for thousands and thousands—one by Christie’s and one by Sotheby’s.
MIDDLE EASTERN INFLUENCE
The moon flask (additionally spelled moonflask) is characterised by a round physique—thus its title—slender cylindrical neck, flat base, and two arched facet handles, which create an “embrace” between the physique and neck. These vases required an exceptionally excessive degree of technical talent to make. They have been heavy, exhausting to fireside, and prone to collapsing within the kiln, significantly the items made for the Chinese language emperors and Imperial households, typically over 20 inches excessive.
Moon flasks have been impressed by the Center Japanese metalwork water flasks that vacationers carried and imported into China alongside the Silk Highway. Within the West, they’re historically often called pilgrim’s flasks.
This flask kind first appeared in Chinese language pottery through the Tang dynasty (618-907) and have become firmly established as a normal ceramic form through the Music dynasty (960-1279). Typically used to hold holy water and oils, the vases’ full-moon surfaces have been used to hand-paint symbolic designs, together with dragons and flowers, in blue and white for Chinese language Imperial palaces. The Center Japanese affect was additionally seen in lots of different designs, like flowering stems, stylized blooms, and leafy fronds paying homage to Islamic arabesques.
The flask advanced right into a extremely ornamental object through the Ming period (1368-1644), and the type was later reproduced through the Kangxi (1661-1722) and Yongzheng (1722-1735) durations. Moon flasks regained dominance through the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1735-1796), who preferred to revive types from the previous.
New shapes and designs have been invented because the Imperial kiln experimented with new firing strategies and glazes, together with blue, copper-red, lime inexperienced, turquoise (the rarest), and yellow.
BRITISH POTTERS ADD THEIR SPINS
After Japanese artists finally began making moon flasks, the craze for Japonisme in Europe helped the vases to be launched there, and European potters crafted them in varied types and designs. Throughout Britain’s Aesthetic period within the late Nineteenth century, the moon flask was one of the vital standard types of artwork pottery.
Plenty of British firms produced moon flasks which can be standard with collectors right now, together with Minton Pottery, a serious firm in Staffordshire pottery and a frontrunner in ceramic design through the Victorian period. Minton produced work utilizing many various ornamental strategies and types, like artwork nouveau, Asian, Rococo, and a wide range of types.
The corporate additionally used the moon-flask form for pâte-sur-pâte designs, as its round kind offered a “canvas” for artists to precise their creativity. Moon flasks have been additionally a favourite form at Minton’s Artwork Pottery Studio in London.
One in all Minton’s prime progressive designers within the mid-1860s was Christopher Dresser. A serious determine of the Aesthetic Motion, Dresser is taken into account the primary industrial designer and is commonly thought to be Britain’s most necessary designer of the Nineteenth century. Impressed by Japanese artwork, a few of Dresser’s early designs for Minton included bone china moon flasks with Japanese ornamental motifs.
Dresser additionally designed moon flasks for Royal Worcester, one other English firm that gained recognition for its Japanese-inspired designs.
Doulton of Lambeth Pottery additionally produced moon flasks, typically in pairs, by artists together with John Eyre, the artwork director, Hannah Barlow, Ada Dennis, Esther Lewis, Katherine Sturgeon, and Linnie Watt. These artists and others embellished a number of totally different types of moon flasks with the Faience method and painted border designs; scenes of youngsters in rural settings have been a well-liked motif. The moon-flask kind may also sometimes be present in Doulton Lambeth Burslem artwork wares and stoneware. The corporate’s massive blue and white Burslem moon flasks are evocative of the items made by Chinese language and Japanese artists.
COLLECTING MOON FLASKS
One of the crucial standard porcelain vase shapes sought by collectors, moon flasks might be present in varied coloured glazes and painted by hand decorations, together with cranes and different birds, dragons, flowers, fruit, Islamic-inspired motifs, Japanese-inspired designs, and pastoral scenes.
Just about any vintage or classic moon flask is collectible, whether or not made by British, Chinese language, or Japanese potters, however some examples are extra beneficial than others. Some command sky-high costs due to the talent required to make moon flasks, significantly massive items. The most costly moon flask recorded in WorthPoint’s database is $903,750 for an especially uncommon and huge vase offered in 2014 by WorthPoint’s accomplice, Freeman’s. The monumental flask embodies the refinement in ceramic craftsmanship of Qing imperial potters throughout Emperor Yongzheng’s reign.
Two different massive and scarce moon flasks offered for thousands and thousands in 2023: a doucai-painted “dragon” moon flask offered at a Christie’s Hong Kong sale for $13.8 million, whereas a Yongle black and white flask offered at Sotheby’s for $10.9 million.
Collectors can discover extra inexpensive items at auctions and e-commerce websites, together with eBay, Etsy, and Mercari. Many flasks are within the $10 to $100 vary, particularly for examples made within the twentieth century and later, and might go as much as a whole lot of 1000’s from there, relying on their rarity, ornament, glaze, and measurement.
Elegant and finely crafted moon flasks add timeless lunar-inspired magnificence to any assortment or residence décor.
Adina Ok. Francis has been a author and editor within the antiques and collectibles subject for greater than 20 years. he has a little bit of an obsession with the Victorians and thinks that canines are considered one of life’s biggest presents.
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