A PAIR OF YUEYAO FOLIATE DISHES

LATE TANG DYNASTY, 9TH/10TH CENTURY

Details
A PAIR OF YUEYAO FOLIATE DISHES
Late Tang Dynasty, 9th/10th Century
Of quatrefoil shape under a pale olive-green crackled glaze, parts of the unglazed grey pottery flat foot firing red
6in. and 3in. (15.2cm. and 14.6cm.) across (2)

Lot Essay

Comparable examples from the Tang period are very rare. A dish with five ogee lobes, described as Yaozhou ware from Changsha, Hunan, dated early 10th century, from the Carl Kempe Collection in the Museum of Far Eastern Art, Stockholm, is illustrated by William Watson, Tang and Liao Ceramics, Fribourg, 1984, p. 168, fig. 178. Compare also, the example from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Porcelain of the Jin and Tang Dynasties, the Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1996, pp. 118 and 119, fig. 106. A white-glazed example of this shape in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, Kodansha, Japan, 1981, vol. 9, fig. 28.

See also Margaret Medley, Tang Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1981, pp. 101-119, for a discussion of Yue Wares and where she illustrates a conical bowl of similar size (dated late 9th century), pls. 103 and 104, and a lobed dish (dated late 10th century), pl. 105.