SONG/JIN DYNASTY, 12TH-13TH CENTURY

細節

A Rare Small Junyao Jardiniere Stand
Song/Jin dynasty, 12th-13th century
Of thickly potted rectangular form, the shallow sides with indented corners rising to a flat, everted rim of conforming outline with raised outer edge, raised on four ruyi-head supports connected by bracket- shaped aprons, covered overall with a thick lustrous glaze of milky blue tone shading to purple in areas and thinning to mushroom on the raised edges, with some 'worm trail' in the glaze of the interior, the base inscribed with the numeral shi (ten) and covered with a brown glaze wash, with the remains of sixteen small spur marks which reveal the grey body
7 1/8in. (18cm.) long, box

來源

Sotheby's, London, 10 December 1991, lot 140.

展覽

An Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, London, Christie's, 2-14 June 1993, no. 8.

拍品專文

A number of Jun ware vessels, mainly the bulb bowls, flower pots and stands, bear Chinese numerals stamped into their bases under the glaze. These numbers have been the subject of much scholarly debate. The numbers range from one to ten, and judging from the examples in the major museum collections and those examined from the excavations at Juntai, Yuxian, the numbers relate to the size of the vessels. Ten represents the smallest size and one the largest. Texts of the Qing period such as the Nan yao biji suggest that the numbers relate to pairs, and while this is too narrow a definition, matching sets of flower pots and stands do indeed bear the same number. The Yinliuzhai shuoci and the Taoya both suggest that the numbers relate to the decoration, with monochrome pieces bearing even numbers and splashed examples having odd numbers. This does not appear to be borne out by extant examples. Some scholars have indicated that the numbering system would have facilitated the ordering process for wares that were being produced in considerable numbers, while others believe that these were garden wares for the court, and that the numbering would have been useful in the palace store rooms.

A similar example of the same size and with ruyi-shaped feet, also inscribed with the number ten, from the Schiller collection, now in the Bristol City Art Gallery, is illustrated by Hobson and Hetherington, The Art of the Chinese Potter," p. XXXIII, fig. 1; and another of similar size, also with an attractive lavender-tinged sky-blue glaze, inscribed with the number nine, is in the Qing Court Collection, Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 23, no. 19. Compare, also, an example complete with matching, tapering rectangular flower pot, in the Percival David Foundation illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, Tokyo, 1982, vol. 6, no. 49.