Gemaakt voor het Vietnamese keizerlijke hof in Hué - Hookah - Porcelain

This highly collectible and rare object concerns an antique porcelain water-pipe pot, originally intended as the water reservoir for a traditional tobacco- or opium-smoking set.

The piece was made in the famous Chinese kiln town of Jingdezhen, but specifically produced on commission for the Vietnamese imperial court in Hué.

This prestigious provenance is unequivocally confirmed by the hand-painted blue-and-white seal mark on the underside, reading '内府' (Neifu / Vietnamese: Nội phủ), which translates as 'Inner Palace' or 'Imperial Household'.

This specific type of export porcelain enjoys high international standing under the collective name 'Bleu de Hue'.

The egg-shaped body is made from the characteristic Ge-type porcelain, featuring a fine reticulate pattern of craquelé cracks under a clear glaze. The belly is ornately hand-painted around in underglaze blue and depicts a powerful, imperial five-clawed dragon moving through a dynamic landscape of stylized cloud- and flame-motifs.

The pot is set in an artisanally crafted mount of pak tong, a traditional Chinese white-copper alloy that over the decades has developed a beautiful, deep dark patina. The vertical metal bands connect at the shoulders to two highly detailed cast hinges in the shape of dragon heads, on which a movable handle rests. This handle is meticulously engraved along its entire arc with a scale pattern to symbolize the body of a dragon. The metal collar around the central filling opening and the openwork floral rosette at the front also attest to high-quality metalworking.

The object is in excellent and structurally solid antique condition with a fully intact porcelain body and a wonderfully lived-in appearance. As is customary with this type of early smoking apparatus, the loose, functional parts such as the stem and tobacco bowl are missing, leaving the piece today as a splendid autonomous art object.

Dimensions: 14.7 x 10.5 x 10 cm
Weight: 355 g