Hi Jeremy,

I needed a sunny morning for my photos before I could respond.  I would say your little jar is teadust, but it seems a little patchy in its glaze effect.  From the photos, I would guess it has some age but I have difficulties judging age from pictures.

Here are some photos of my small teadust vase that was sold to me as early 18th century from a New York dealer in the 1980s

One general rule I can pass on after looking at numerous examples over the years is the earlier 18th century examples of teadust tend to have darker greenish glazes while later 19th century examples seem to have a lighter mustard color to the glaze.

While we are the subject of these types of glaze effects.  Here is an example of iron rust glaze on a double gourd vase I purchased from a London dealer several decades ago.

@william 

Hey William,

Thanks for posting your lovely jar!  the color of yours and that foot definitely looks 18th century.

I have been going over a bunch of the teadust wares in the Gotheborg archives, many of which are analyzed by Mike Vermeer, and it seems the brighter the greens the earlier, then came a darker green with brighter spots(dust), and then that more monochromatic darker green.  As for the bases they seem to be either dark brown washed or green on the earlier ones, then up until Daoguang period or so, the caramel brown underside (I think mine falls into that range somewhere), then a dark kind of matte brown or just the same glaze as the rest.  These "rules" don't seem to apply at all to the Imperial marked pieces, which I won't even begin to understand.

Not sure if I got much of that right, but I definitely noticed that the real teadust ones pop or are vibrant, Mike said "have a luster".    Yours certainly hits all the marks for those earlier ones.

This area is new to me, but I have looked at them a lot and read up on them a lot, and seen museum collected ones a lot, just hadn't really come across an old one for sale at a reasonable price before.

Thanks again.

Jeremy

@william 

I answered as you posted that one... Awesome glaze, and from a great collection.  Was that in the 1989 sale?  there were some really nice Kangxi pieces in that sale.  I had a small 16th century drawing from the the Jurg Strucker collection, and somewhere in my 30 shelves of catalogs I have the 1989 sale, doubt I'll find it, but I'll look.

These blown on dusted type glazes certainly intrigue me.  A number of years ago I stumbled upon the collection of monochromes at the National Gallery of Art here in DC, and there is literally nothing like having your nose six inches away from a powder blue vase or a peach bloom amphora.  I feel bad that the janitor probably had to come by after I left and remove my nose smudges from the glass on the cases....  Unfortunately its been out of the public eye for a while now, but I guess I just wandered in on the right day.

Cheers,

Jeremy

@jbeer2121 

Mike was crazy about teadust.  When he moved to Atlanta, I came to visit and saw his crazy large collection of Chinese ceramics.  His teadust items were in a big glass fronted cabinet.  I have often wondered what happed to his prized Imperial teadust vase.  He called it the Griggs Vase.  Mike wanted to write a book pulling together his knowledge about the history of the glaze, but never got around to doing it and then got too sick.  Gotheborg is probably the only site that still holds his writings on the subject.

@jbeer2121 

I bought the iron rust vase from Jan Beer (if I remember his name correctly) in London probably about five years after that sale.  It was tucked inconspicuously away downstairs in a case.  I spotted it and said to myself “That’s for me!”

I love that National Gallery Chinese porcelain collection from some gilded age robber barons.  It is tucked away downstairs in the old building and is practically forgotten.  Most everything is on display in old fashioned cases when I was last in Washington.  Being a federal museum, I don’t think some damn curator can send it off to auction to cash in on an off topic (not paintings) collection.

@jbeer2121 @william 

Hi Jeremy and William - 

Tea-dust glazes were fully developed in early Qing, the tones of such been highly sensitive to minute changes during firing. Such glazes were called ‘Changguan you’, (Factory glaze), by the potters at the Imperial kilns, and includes three variants, ‘eel-yellow, snake-skin green yellow mottles’ …

Attached images of a vase with wide everted rim, early 18th century, probably Yongzheng period, H. 17.6 cm, BD. 5.8 cm, acquired many years ago …

Unfortunately no sun here today, so somewhat difficult to photograph the glaze tone accurately … 

Stuart 

@ming1449 

Hey Stuart,

Lovely example and what a great glaze. Is there a reign mark hidden under the sticker?  That glaze and the form look almost perfect.

I can't recall where ( may have been one of Mike Vermeer's posts), but I read  the official kilns at Jingdezheng started producing these teadust wares in the early Yongzheng period, it seems that was when a lot of this experimental glaze techniques started.   The National Palace Museum also has a ton of crazy monochromes in colors I doubt I'll ever see in person, and most are dated to Yongzheng.

Cheers,

Jeremy

I did find an interesting patchy looking teadust/"Eel-skin" pot on Christie's site.  Really interesting form and coloration.... Kind of reminds me of the shades of my jar, obviously wayyyyyy better quality, and much older.

https://www.christies.com/lot/a-rare-8216eel-skin8217-glazed-narcissus-bowl8217-yongzheng-6386487/?intObjectID=6386487&lid=1

@william 

Hey William,

I am super jealous you got to see the collection in person, and the teadust case.... he posted a picture on the Gotheborg forum, it must have been mind blowing.  I don't recall seeing the Grigg's vase in either of the Brunk sales (those were horrible in so many ways, split pairs especially, and the lack of descriptions eesh)....  I too wonder where it ended up.  On a side note a number of copies of that vase have turned up over the last few years at the majors, rather interesting considering the amount of research Mike did and still found no others, I assume those are all fakes.

As for the National Gallery, yup that was my childhood, the old museums, many of which are getting redone, kind of a bummer, I love the hidden away gems.  I doubt any of those will ever get sold off, but they may stay in storage for a long time.

Jeremy

@jbeer2121 

I could just kick myself for not taking pictures of what I saw during my visit to Mike’s house.  It was one of those 1990s McMansions in a suburban bedroom community just outside of Atlanta.  That three story house was packed to the brim with Chinese porcelain, stoneware & pottery numbering in the thousands.  On the ground level Mike had made an attempt to keep the porcelain contained in display cases and table top surfaces. An upstairs spare bedroom contained most of his 18th century Lang Yao vases and a display of Mark & Period Imperial wares along the walls of the unfurnished room.  These were the things he wanted to eventually display on individual pedestals under protective glass.  The house had a multi-room basement accessed by a set of stairs that had gotten utilized as additional storage for porcelain that at the time I hoped wasn’t excessively valuable.  In the basement rooms he had set up multiple eight foot long tables in garage sale fashion to hold more of his collection.  Corey, Tim, John and all of you other pickers would have fallen down in a fit of ecstasy in front of those crowded tables.  I remember casually picking a white Ming stemcup that had hidden decoration when held to the light.  It would have taken shopping carts to empty those rooms!  I also remember peeking into an unfinished crawl space that had a ledge packed with hundreds (300?) of miniature vases in a rainbow of monochrome colors.

His website probably showed one tenth of his collection. I know Christies came down after he died and cherry picked what they wanted to sell.  I suspect his sister or her representatives didn’t access his extensive research records, because I know mistakes were made, particularly at the later “second tier” Brunk sale.  Certain pieces might have been privately disposed of during the estate settlement because I was on the lookout for certain things that he had especially prized that never made it to any of the auctions.

@william do you know of any good asian dealers in or around atlanta?

@jbeer2121 

Hi Jeremy- 

No, the base has no reign mark. The body has one small glaze pit and some light scratches, but these can only be seen when examined closely. The glaze is beautiful controlled, finishing in a tight circler line just above the outer footrim …

Sun this morning, attached images taken to show the mottled colour tones, glaze depth and brown edges around the inner mouth rim/everted outer edge … 

Just to clarify, this is a high fired crystalline glaze. Numerous iron and magnesium particles react with silicate acid and are suspended on the glaze surface, the formation of which depends on the recipe/percentages of the the different metals and particle sizes.
The firing temperature, atmosphere within/during and the duration of the cooling process are also critical to the eventual outcome … 

Stuart 

@ming1499,

Its absolutely stunning.....i really like it very much.

Is that sticker yours?

Mark 

@imperialfinegems 

Hi Mark - 

Thank you for your kind words, much appreciated! 

Yes, that is my collection label ...

Regards my friend, 

Stuart