Getty Museum

Pair of Lidded Jars

Unknown

Date

porcelain about 1662–1722; mounts about 1745–1749

Medium

Hard-paste porcelain, polychrome enamel decoration and gilding; gilt bronze mounts

Culture

Chinese

Department

Decorative Arts

Institution

Getty Museum

Chinese potters decorated this vase to imitate Japanese Imari porcelain, using its distinctive palette of blue, gold, and iron red. By the early 1700s, the Chinese had begun producing such products for export, in order to capitalize on the success of Japanese Imari in Europe. In the 1700s, dealers of luxury goods called *marchands-merciers* purchased porcelain from China or Japan directly at auction or from the East India companies and passed it to metalworkers to decorate. Often the porcelain was modified to take the mounts, sometimes creating completely new forms. These vases were scarcely altered; they were once slightly taller, but French craftsmen cut off their curved shoulders and then fitted them with gilt bronze mounts to form lids. The gilt bronze mounts take the form of seaweed, coral, fish, eggs, and shells.

The authoritative record is held by Getty Museum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.