A RARE SMALL BLUE AND SANCAI-GLAZED POTTERY FLASK

LIAO DYNASTY (907-1125)

Details

A RARE SMALL BLUE AND SANCAI-GLAZED POTTERY FLASK
LIAO DYNASTY (907-1125)
Of 'owl' form, the rounded front with a lower panel filled with rounded bosses in irregular rows suggesting feathers, below large blue and resist-glazed medallions suggesting eyes, covered in amber, green and cream glaze, the flat back covered with an amber glaze, all below an arched handle and attached to the diagonally set spout
7¼ in. (18.4 cm.) high, wood stand

Provenance

Yin Chuan Tang Ltd., Hong Kong, 1 February 1994.
Greenwald Collection no. 19.

Literature

Gerald M. Greenwald, The Greenwald Collection, Two Thousand Years of Chinese Ceramics, 1996, no. 19.

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Lot Essay

Flasks of this unusual type were inspired by Liao leather pilgrim bottles. W. Watson, Tang and Liao Ceramics, New York, 1984, pp. 224-6, divides pilgrim's bottles, also known as 'cockscomb' in Chinese, into five distinct chronological groups. The present flask likely belongs to the fourth group where "the flattened body of the earlier type becomes round in the the plan and even subspherical, the spout smaller and the handle more prominent". A larger (9¾ in.) flask of this type without the 'feather' molding was included in the exhibition, Chinese Art from the Ferris Luboshez Collection, University of Maryland, 23 March - 30 April 1972, no. 6, fig. 2. Another smaller (12.5 cm.) flask is illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, Tokyo, 1976, vol., 11, p. 141, no. 126.

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