NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY, 11TH-12TH CENTURY

The fine clay from which this mold was made, and the skillfully cut carving of its intaglio design explain why the decoration on the Northern celadons made on molds of this type have such beautiful designs. Fine Northern celadons were made at several sites including Tongchuan,Yaozhou, in Shaanxi province and sites in Linruxian in Henan province. A bowl bearing the sort of slender petalled chrysanthemum design that would have been produced by the Falk mold is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong, 1996, p. 160, no. 146, where it is attributed to the Linru kilns and dated to the Song dynasty. A bowl bearing a similar design, but with slightly broader petals, also in the Palace Museum, and illustrated in the same volume, p. 122, no. 108, is attributed to the Yaozhou kilns. Fragments of bowls bearing impressed designs of this type have been excavated at sites in Linru, illustrated by Feng Xianming, Zhongguo gu taoci lunwenji, Hong Kong, 1987, p. 171, pl. 7 and at Tongchuan, illustrated in Zhonguo Taoci Quanji, 10, Yaozhou yao, Shanghai, 1985, no. 69.