A RARE GLAZED PINKISH-BUFF POTTERY MODEL OF A BELL

Details

A RARE GLAZED PINKISH-BUFF POTTERY MODEL OF A BELL
EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, WARRING STATES PERIOD, 5TH-4TH CENTURY B.C.

Modeled in imitation of a bronze bell and of elliptical section, each side of the tall, slightly flared body decorated with a rectangular field divided into two sections of five horizontal rows, all impressed with 'S' scrolls and three rows also applied with conical bosses, all within rope-twist borders above a similarly impressed panel pierced with five holes, the flat top with a ring-punched ground and incised with a cruciform pattern radiating from the base of the reticulated, ring-punched handle, covered overall with a transparent glaze of olive tone, some chips--7 5/8in. (19.4cm.) high

Exhibited

Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Born of Earth and Fire, Chinese Ceramics from the Scheinman Collection, September 9-November 8, 1992, no. 18

Lot Essay

This fine piece belongs to a group of early glazed wares made for funerary purposes in the forms of bronzes. They are decorated with stamped spirals and 'S'-shaped patterns that derive from bronze ornament. Most known glazed bells are of yongzhong type, that is, with thick vertical bar handle, such as those found in a set of glazed stoneware musical instruments in a burial in Haiyanxian, Zhejiang province, Wenwu, 1985:8, pl. V. See, also, the examples in the Seattle Art Museum and another in the Weber Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yutaka Mino and Katherine Tsiang, Ice and Green Clouds--Traditions of Chinese Celadon, Indianapolis, 1986, pl.7