SONG DYNASTY (AD 960-1279)

A bowl of similar form and design is illustrated by R. Krahl in Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 1, London, 1994, p. 278, no. 515, where it is noted that similar wares with a light blue qingbai glaze applied over a slip have been excavated at the Baishe kilns in Nanfeng county, Jiangxi province. A similar small conical bowl excavated at Baishe is illustrated in Kaogu, 1985, No. 3, pl. 6: 1 & 2, and in a line drawing on p. 226, fig. 4:1. Another very similar Baishe ‘moon and prunus’ tea bowl from the Turner Collection, now in the Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina, is illustrated in Eye to the East: The Turner Collection of Chinese Art, Columbia, 2008, p. 64. Another example was sold in J. J. Lally & Co.; Christie’s New York, 23 March 2023, lot 877.

This moon and prunus motif is also found on white stoneware boxes and covers made at the nearby Jizhou kilns, such as the example illustrated by R. Krahl in Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 1, London, 1994, p. 279, no. 517, and one from the Falk Collection, sold at Christie's New York, 16 October 2001, lot 96.