A Rare Cizhou Painted and Incised Jar

NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY (960-1127)

Details

A Rare Cizhou Painted and Incised Jar
Northern Song dynasty (960-1127)
Both sides of the bulbous body freely painted in brown on a white slip with a leafy peony spray, the details of the two large blossoms and the veins of the leaves incised through the brown to the white slip, with further brown splashes at the top and bottom of each of the double- strap handles which flank the cylindrical neck below the everted mouth rim, all under a clear glaze which falls short of the shallow foot ring to expose the pale grey ware, the interior also covered in a white slip and partially with a clear glaze
7¾in. (19.7cm.) high, 9in. (20.9cm.) across, box

Provenance

Sotheby's, London, 11 July 1978, lot 104.

Lot Essay

A slightly smaller Cizhou jar of similar form but decorated with upright frond-like branches, is illustrated by Y. Mino and K. Tsang in the exhibition catalogue, Freedom of Clay and Brush through Seven Centuries in Northern China: Tz'u-chou Type Wares, 960-1600 A.D. Indianapolis Museum of Art, 17 November 1980-18 January 1981, p. 113, pl. 44. The freely painted decoration of the peony spray is commonly seen on Cizhou wares of various forms, including the truncated meiping also included in the exhibition, op. cit., p. 199, no. 87.

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