SONG DYNASTY, 11TH-12TH CENTURY

The form of this elegant stem bowl appears be based on earlier metal prototypes, such as the silver lobed bowl with tall splayed foot dating to the Tang dynasty illustrated in Tangdai Jinyinqi, Beijing, 1985, no. 274. Bowls of this form were also executed in other materials, such as lacquer; see, for example, the black lacquer lobed bowl set on a similar tall, cylindrical foot and dated to the Northern Song dynasty, illustrated in Chinese Art in Overseas Collections: Lacquerware, Taipei, 1987, p. 19, no. 19.

A similar qingbai bowl is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and illustrated in The Charles B. Hoyt Collection, Boston, 1952, p. 90, no. 359, and another bowl in the Ashmolean Museum is illustrated by M. Tregear, Song Ceramics, New York, 1982, p. 152, no. 199.