Originating in China in the Shang dynasty, stonewear pottery is fired at a high temperature (about 1,200° C [2,200° F]) until vitrified, i.e., glasslike and impervious to liquid. It is usually opaque and since it is nonporous, it does not require a glaze, so glazes are purely decorative. It is extremely durable and used for such items as the glazed garden stools in VA’s collection.
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This delicate antique Yixing teapot is unusually shaped with a loop handle, short spout, flaring rim, small flat cover and small loops below its rim that indicate it may have been used to suspend oil or soy sauce rather than serve tea. Its charm is enhanced by its free hand-painted colored enamels with circular panels containing fanciful and bright floral and leaf decorations.
This delicate antique Yixing teapot is unusually shaped with a loop handle, short spout, flaring rim, small flat cover and small loops below its rim that indicate it may have been used to suspend oil or soy sauce rather than serve tea. Its charm is enhanced by its free hand-painted colored enamels with circular panels containing fanciful and bright floral and leaf decorations.
This stunning antique garden stool has parallel ridges surrounding its body and is a fine and rare piece. Hand thrown with a thick high-fired stable body, it has six framed panels with historic and symbolic images against a white background focusing on the finely made and intricate designs surrounded by rich cobalt blue. Most garden stools were made in a drum or barrel shape, far fewer were hexagonal and fewer still had auspicious objects and poems framed within the panels. This fine piece was created for the garden of a rich family, as cobalt was highly prized and expensive used in sparing amounts unless bound for an an important client. This unique piece has not only outstanding rendered panels, but the objects represented there were included to provide a flow of blessings, good wishes, energy and good fortune to those using it.
This magnificent glazed stoneware garden stool was owned by a wealthy family that is reflected in its complex pierce-work and its use of cobalt blue, a prized mineral color normally used very sparingly. Its strong hexagonal walls are decorated with registers of varied heights running vertically up the sides and divided by horizontal cobalt blue lines surrounding the stool. The designs depicted here – narcissus flowers, double lozenges and the octagonal shapes below are all Chinese auspicious symbols, homophones, and visual puns laden with meaning and wishes for continual good fortune, prosperity and wealth and the protective casting out of demons for the family to reach their goals and wishes for a good life. This pairs well with garden stool 16779.
Fashioned in a traditional drum/barrel shape, this unusual and ornately decorated antique garden stool is covered with auspicious symbols, and the positive energy from them is believed to be absorbed by the lucky individual who sits on them. Highlighted with pierced decorations and circular reliefs the upper borders of the body of this beautiful stoneware stool is covered with four bands of apple green, white, brown and cobalt blue – an expensive and infrequently used pigment. The bottom portion is covered in a mustard yellow glaze with pierced and relief images of double coins, tao tieh and florals.
This five-sided Shiwan stoneware pillow with slanted top, open bottom, vibrant glazed surface, and etched coin and diamond design was used for smoking opium as the cool shell cradled the users’ heads and necks and offset the warmth of smoking and the hollow inside stored valuables. We have another which can be paired with it. If a candle is placed inside it emits an amazing shadowy form of a coin, which appealed to those in an opium state.
This finely designed 14/15th century globular stoneware box resting on a short foot has an olive-brown glazed lotus bud handle surrounded by radiating radiating olive-brown and lightly glazed petals above a band of geometric shapes. The body is lyrically ornamented with an intricate scroll of white, light glazed and incised colored branches and florals on an olive-brown glaze background. Its fine appearance is a result of the unusual lovely olive-brown surface with a glaze applied sparsely in some areas and thicker in others to offset the vegetal scrolls.
This pair of beautiful antique apple green gazed stoneware Shiwan candle holders are part of a 5-piece home altar set. Made with rounded, elegant soft corners and having intricate designs in relief against a smooth background, this graceful pair complements the entire altar presentation while creating its own appealing well-proportioned silhouettes.
Made with rounded, elegant, soft corners and having intricate designs in relief against a smooth background, this striking and graceful pair of vases will complement the overall presentation of any home They create an appealing, well-proportioned silhouette. A vase, actual or as an image, is commonly seen in Chinese homes as a symbol of peace and safety and the fulfillment of all of one’s wishes. Vase pairs can also used as part of a 5pc altar set when their decorative and/or structural designs are in sync with the other components.
This rare 5 piece green glazed Shiwan stoneware altar set consists of a censor at the center flanked on each side by a pair of candlestick holders and vases. Each elegant piece has a coordinated glaze and decorative and structural designs with intricate, well-proportioned features to combine as a wish for symbolic wish for the fulfillment of all of one’s wishes including the 5-blessings (health, wealth, longevity, a virtuous life, a natural death).
This gazed stoneware lidded bowl rests on a solid well-cut foot and has a close-fitting cover. The lid’s center has a lotus bud handle with a surrounding linear medallion on the top. Alternating panels have underglaze brown crosshatching and vegetal scrolls beginning on the lid, continuing below to the body and each pane separated by a series of vertical and circular lines.
This charm of this 14/15th century stoneware Sawankhalok lidded jar is its elegant mangosteen shape, the use of alternating vibrant cream and brown glazes and stylized incised floral and geometric designs. The lid has a curved stem handle and a round raised calyx, a circle of radiating leaf-like projections that protects a developing flower and represents a mangosteen, the delicious sweet tropical fruit loved throughout Southeast Asia. Concentric raised circles surround the calyx and the body is decorated with a band of incised vegetal scrolls.
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