SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY, 12TH-13TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE QINGBAI LOBED EWER AND COVER
Southern Song dynasty, 12th-13th century
Made in imitation of a metal prototype, the sides divided into eight lobes within incised line borders, the strap handle applied with a loop on top and bosses at its base that match those below the curved spout, the whole raised on a flared, pleated foot, with a bud finial in the concave center of the cover and a loop applied to the everted rim, all under a mottled clear glaze; together with an unusual qingbai bowl, Southern Song dynasty, with deep, rounded conical sides crisply molded on the interior with six alternating panels of jardinières and vases filled with flowers of the seasons, covered overall with a clear glaze of ivory tone stopping short of the unglazed rim
Ewer 6¾in. (17cm.) high; bowl 7 3/8in. (18.7cm.) diam., boxes (2)

Provenance

Ewer: Christie's, New York, 2 December 1989, lot 166.

Lot Essay

Qingbai ewers copying metal prototypes are rare. A related ewer, also with a lobed body, raised on a plain foot and minus the bosses, excavated from a Song tomb at Yanshan near Shaowu in Fujian province, is illustrated in Kaogu, 1981:5, pl. 11, fig. 8. One in the Yokogawa collection, is included in Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum, vol. 1, no. 378; and another is illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl. 417. Compare, also, the qingbai vase with lobed body and fluted foot in the British Museum, illustrated by B. Gray, Sung Porcelain and Stoneware, London, 1984, pl. N.
A very similar ewer was sold at Sotheby's, London, 19 June 2002, lot 22.

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