SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY (1127-1279)

This shallow dish combines all of the elements of the best Longquan celadon wares of Southern Song date. It has a pale grey body, is well potted and well proportioned and the carving of the lotus petals is softened by the thick, smooth glaze of soft, rich blue-green tone. A very similar dish was discovered in 1963 amongst a cache of celadon, black-glazed and other ceramic wares, in a Song dynasty well near Majiaqiao, Shaoxing in Zhejiang province. See 'Zhejiang Shaoxing Majiaqiao Song qu fa qu jianbao', Kaogu, 1964:11, p. 558, fig. 11:5. Other similar dishes were more recently unearthed in Zhejiang, and are illustrated in Newly Discovered Southern Song Ceramics, A Thirteenth-Century "Time Capsule", Tokyo, 1998, nos. 46-8.