Fencai Melon Form Ginger Jar

Covered with butterflies, ornate vases, and an abundance of blooms, this melon-shaped jar describes a fanciful garden with a burst of color. Manufactured in the Qing court’s imperial workshops, the jar is a beautiful example of fencai ware. A technique of overglazing porcelain with enamel pigments, fencai, translated as “powdery color,” gets its name from the presence of a white opaque enamel that gives the fired result its soft colors. To give depth to the illustrations, the artist mixed colored enamels with varying amounts of white, creating a gentle gradient effect best seen in the petals of the pink flowers. A traditional vase form, the melon jar is the perfect shape to embellish with this profusion of colorful riches.