Puzzling Evidence - The Edward Gerber Collection and Pink Chinese Cloisonne

The previous post discussing pink background enamel in Chinese cloisonne mentioned the collection of Edward Gerber.  Doctor Gerber passed away in 2013; Clars Auction Gallery was responsible for the sale of items from his estate. 

Among the items up for auction was what seems to be a unique assemblage of Chinese cloisonne items with a bright pink background enamel and a resemblance to a pair of vases with a rare Jingyuantang (静远堂) signature that possibly date from before World War I.

While the Gerber pieces share a similar "hundred treasures" design, the bases of many of the items have an unusual and distinctive feature: rather than a circle inset into the base, they feature an enameled cap applied over the bottom edges.

There are many designs, from small soap dishes and tea sets to large jars and vase pairs.

The LiveAuctioneers.com database of past sales can be searched to view the Gerber auctions. Note the pair of stacked cylinder dishes toward the back of the top shelf.  More about a similar set below.  The small vase at bottom right displays a double happiness motif.

The vase displays a pattern at the base similar to one found on porcelains; the floral pattern is old-fashioned, and the double happiness characters seem to link it to the Jingyuantang vase; the "tiger" (?) handles and overall shape, rim, pale green turquoise enamel link it to the other examples in the collection (is it a mate to the vase bottom right previous picture?).  Again, the complete set of cups and cupholders seems unusual - how did these pieces stay together so long? Online auction.

A pair of warming dishes.

Vase Pair 1, with similar exteriors but slightly different interior enamel colors and different bases (one seems to show the traces of a wax stamp indicating approved export of a non-antique item).

Vase Pair 1 compared with similar Vase Pair 2

Vase 3 details

Vase Pair 2 and Vase 3 comparison.

Three views of pink jar

Blue turquoise jar pair from another auction, not the Gerber collection

Another non-Gerber jar, this time in a green turquoise

A non-Gerber jar photographed in daylight.

Comparison of Gerber jar with blue turquoise jar.

Comparison of the green turquoise jar with the pink jar with similar large vase motif.

Ginger jar from Ancientpoint.com, 2012

An old-fashioned perforated hat stand from a 2015 auction, similar but not identical to the Gerber pair pictured above.

Another hat stand pair.  Note the similarity of the twin fishes vase motif to that on the Jingyuantang vase pair at the start of this post.  The dotted base rim can be seen in other pieces above.

A  cylinder vase in the style of a hat stand.

A blue turquoise vase in hat stand-style.  According to Arthur & Grace Chu, orange enamel was a development of the 1970s, so this is perhaps a more recent production?

A similar set of stacked bowls can be seen in the Gerber collection.  According to the auction description,
"These bowls were from the Audrey Meadows estate. Her husband Robert Six, was CEO of Continental Airlines and this was a gift for his wife from the Hong Kong Government on approval of Continental Airlines initial flight to China."  Upon a bit of investigation, I discovered that during the 1970s Audrey worked with Robert to design the Continental cabin interiors and flight attendant uniforms.  She had the uniforms manufactured in Hong Kong. While Continental flew routes to Pacific islands during the Vietnam War, a route to Hong Kong was evidently only approved in the late 1970s or 1980 but never actually flown.  Robert Six died in 1981,and the company changed ownership.  Thus, it seems that these dishes must have been produced before 1980.

A teapot from another auction.

Another "treasures" vase from a 2015 auction.

A dish and small vase from other auctions.

What to make of this puzzling evidence?  How to account for the similarity between the Jingyuantang vase pair and other pieces?  

• Are they all pre-World War II products from the same workshop? 1910s-1930s? Are some - or all - post-World War II reproductions?  1970s?
• Where did Dr. Gerber purchase them - in Hong Kong or Taipei, before mainland China was opened to U.S. visitors in 1972?  In Beijing or Shanghai or Hong Kong during the 1970s or early 1980s? 
• How did Dr. Gerber find so many of them, with pairs of items still intact?

And now for something completely different:

Continental Uniforms from the early 1970s. Audrey's designs?

Puzzling Evidence - Pink Enamel in Chinese Cloisonne

The prior post about an interesting plate with an unusual background of rose pink enamel prompted some further investigation, and the following observations.

The method for producing pink glass relies upon two metals - gold and/or selenium. European glass technology had discovered the chemistry for creating the right type of gold compound by the 17th century.  The powerful early Qing emperors employed visiting Jesuits from Europe to develop, among other things, the ability for the imperial workshops to produce this gold pink enamel first for porcelain and then cloisonne, especially during the 60-year 18th century reign of Emperor Qianlong.  

Qianlong porcelain with rose enamel

Chinese "Canton enamel" painted on a metal tray.

During the later half of the 19th century, improved chemistry resulted in the discovery that selenium could also be used to produce pink glass, as well as a bright, hot red in combination with cadmium.  Selenium may be a comparatively rare and expensive element, but it is nonetheless cheaper than gold.  By the 1920s, glass industries worldwide had adopted selenium and cadmium technology for pink and red. (Here's an example, from a 1941 patent).

Chinese pink glass - Boshan beads, pink "Peking Glass" finial on an enameled brass souvenir canister, opal pink dish marked "CHINA" with enameled metal rim - all likely to be from circa 1910-1930s.

Japanese cloisonne ateliers during the "Golden Age" (1880-1910) developed new cloisonne enamel coloring technologies, working with German glass chemist Gottfried Wagener, who in 1884 headed the ceramic and glass engineering department of the Tokyo Arts and Crafts School.

Japanese cloisonne examples with various pink backgrounds.  Notice the absence of a background pattern in most of the pieces.  

But what about Chinese cloisonne?  Below is a sequence of examples displaying a pink enamel background, arranged in what is my best guess as to rough chronological order.

Online auctioneer believed this to be from the 18th century.

Elegant lotus scrollwork with Victorian lamp fittings

A moon flask with Wan background pattern, apparently at one time drilled to covert into an electric lamp.

Base stamp reads "Jing Yuan Tang Made."  Online auction. Appears to be a set designed as a marriage gift, judging by the double fish and double happiness character motifs.  Is this an instance of a bright pink selenium enamel, an effort to use modern glass technology?  Could the enamel have been produced in Japan?

Zhang Rong writes, on page 167 of Cloisonne: Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, writes: 

Late in the Qing dynasty and during the Republic, the craft of enamel, like the last rays of a setting sun, again reached a minor peak.  The finest surviving cloisonne objects from this period exhibit marks of official and private organizations and workshops, such as Yinzhuju xunzhang zhizaosuo (... The Factory of Engraving and Casting Decorations), Laotianli (老天利), Jingyuantang (静远堂), Zhiyuantang (志远堂), Baohuasheng (寶華生), Dexingcheng (德興成), and Decheng (德成). But owing to the lack of documents, very little is known about these enameling workshops during this period.

A jar in the "hundred treasures" motif.  Note the similarity in the central motif to the Jingyuantang vase - the large decorated vase with peacock feathers (?), atop a 3-legged table; behind, a table containing a bowl of peaches. Also observe the more careful composition of the overall design in the vase pair, whereas the motifs on the jar seem to be scattered all over the place.

An unusual cloisonne foot on the jar, apparently a sort of cap crimped on over the bottom of the cylinder.

The former collection of Edward Gerber seems to contain a large number of this style of pink cloisonne, many still in pairs.  More on this in an upcoming post.

Carefully worked pieces that seem to date to the Republic period (1912-1949)

This lotus petal pattern appears in other shapes, such as a vase or box.

The "Made In China" stamp appears on pieces for export to the United States, in compliance with a 1920 tariff act revision.

This elegant design seems very 1930s-40s, but I wonder if it is in fact from the government-sponsored cloisonne workshops of the early 1950s, when they were trying to modernize and revive the craft. It's an unusual design of abstract Chinese motifs. Are the tonal variations in the pink the result of grinding and mixing varying proportions of white in with the deep maroon enamel?

Another example with a turquoise background in the medallion.

The "petal" diaper in this lamp, as well as the little gourd motif floating all by itself on the side opposite the main motif, matches other pieces that seem to date from the 1950s, before the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1966.

These melon boxes appear in various background colors other than pink, seem to be from the 1980s or later.

Basins featuring an 8 Treasures motif, scrollwork on base.  1990s? Or 1890s?

This plate with the parrots and fruit tree branch also appears with a bright lime green background.  The wires seem to be silver.  The motif seems Chinese.  I don't know where or when these plates were produced - 1990s or later?  

What to make of all this puzzling evidence?  Comments, anyone?

Puzzling Evidence - Dragon's Gate Plate with Pink Enamel

A blog reader sent these pics of a charming plate:

A mighty carp broaching the rapids of the Dragon's Gate to achieve apotheosis as a dragon?

Shape, gilding, and back design in the style of DeCheng plates?

The rim features a clever combination of the Buddhist 8 Auspicious Symbols and the Daoist Attributes of the Eight Immortals, very  neatly executed, with carefully applied background diaper of what appear to be either clouds or water ripples, a motif in use from Ming onward.

Notable also is the lavish use of pink enamel as the dominant background color instead of the more usual turquoise blue.  The Chinese word for cloisonne is "Jing Tai Lan" - the blue of Jing Tai - because the Ming emperor Jing Tai was supposed to especially favor cloisonne of a rich turquoise blue.   Pink glass requires costly gold chloride, prepared by various rather technical chemical processes.  Because cloisonne enamels start out as pieces of glass that are then finely ground before being applied to metal work and fired to re-melt the glass, pink enamel would likely have been an expensive luxury. Pink enamel in cloisonne does not seem to appear until the QianLong period in the 18th century, so the 1700s would be the earliest dating for this plate.  By the late 1800s, however, newer technology at the Boshan glassworks could well have been producing rich opaque pinks, so perhaps the cloisonne workshops that were given a boost in the 1890s by imperial support might have experimented with the increased availability of this lovely color.

Also of interest are the black and light opaque purple enamels. And what about the style in which the dragon is depicted?

This is such a delightful, colorful piece, it makes me wonder if it was a special birthday present for some lucky little boy with wealthy parents?

When do you think it might have been made? 18th century? Early 19th century? Late 19th century?  Early 20th century?

UPDATE (April 18, 2021) 

Since this was first published, another similar plate in black turned up, with an inscription on the back.

Also a bowl featuring a similar style of dragon gate theme, seemingly consistent with a late-Qing - 1920s dating;