A Kangxi Blue and White Reticulated Porcelain Vase and Cover.

A Kangxi Blue and White Reticulated Porcelain Vase and Cover, Jingdezhen Kilns, China. This very heavy facetted blue and white vase and cover has an outer reticulated (pierced, cut) decoration which allows you to see through to a much smaller inner section which is in essence a porcelain tube. This inner tube of porcelain is also decorated in cobalt blue. It is joined to the body at the bottom, at the top it is joined at the inside of the neck, you can clearly see tool marks where it was luted together. Vases of this type were made as part of a garniture of five vases. This well made Kangxi vase has a honey comb design with the addition of areas left for flowering branches. Pieces like this were difficult to produce, as the tensions within the clay could pull and push causing firing faults or worse. The blue is very clear and bright. Linglong / Reticulated Porcelain : The present piece is an example of what can be referred to as `reticulated` porcelain, reticulated meaning having the form or appearance of a net, it was used as early the beginning of the 18th Century by the famous Père Francois Xavier d`Entrecolles (1664-1741) to describe this type of work on porcelain. Another popular term for this type of pierced or cut decoration is `Devils Work` or Guigong. However the Chinese term Linglong is gradually replacing the previous terms, helped by the publication of Jorge Welsh’s book `Linglong` (Jorge Welsh,London,2004.ISBN 972-99045-2-9). There does not seem to be any difference in the use of terms between the free standing pierced porcelain or that supported by an inner wall, nor a distinction made between the most refined work or the type with larger cut-out sections of porcelain. See Below For More Photographs and Information SOLD