YUAN/MING DYNASTY, 13TH-15TH CENTURY

Ge ware, along with Guan, Ru, Ding and Jun, comprise the ' Five Great Wares of the Song Dynasty'. The problems of distinguishing the two crackled wares, Guan, and Ge, were discussed at length during a three-day conference held at the Shanghai Museum in 1992, and while no unanimity of opinion was reached, it was generally thought that those wares with a jinsi tiexian ('gold thread and iron wire') crackle should be designated Ge. See R. Scott, "Guan or Ge Ware?", Oriental Art, Summer 1993, pp. 12-23. Recent archaeological researches suggest that Ge wares may have been made at kilns just outside the walls of the Southern Song palace at Hangzhou, while other suggest that they may have been made at kilns nearer to the centre of Longquan production. What all agree, is that Ge wares display the qualities that might be expected of vessels intended for imperial appreciation.

Compare to a nearly identical Ge-glazed cinquefoil washer dating to the Song dynasty in the National Museum of China. Other similar examples are found in institutions and private collections worldwide, including a Ge-glazed quatrefoil brush washer dating to the Song dynasty exhibited and illustrated in Selected Treasures of Chinese Art: Min Chiu Society Thirtieth Anniversary Exhibition, Hong Kong, 1990, pp. 252-253, no, 111; a Ge-glazed cinquefoil cup in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Ko Ware of the Sung Dynasty, Book II, Hong Kong, 1962, pl. 42, pp. 121-122; and a hexafoil brush washer in the Palace Museum, Beijing, designated as Guan, illustrated in Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 23, pl. 18.