NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY

This distinctive Yaozhou vessel is an especially elegant version of a form that in China is usually called a zun. At the Yaozhou kilns it is possible that the form has a predecessor in a similar type of jar, but without an everted rim, that has been found among the Five Dynasties vessels at the Huangbao zhen kiln site. See Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka (eds), The Masterpieces of Yaozhou Ware, Tokyo, 1997, p. 101, no. 133. Another form similar to the current example, and with the same type of decoration, but without curled rim sections, was also made at the Yaozhou kilns. For an example in the Yale University Art Gallery see Y. Mino and K. Tsiang, Ice and Green Clouds, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1986, pp. 144-5, no. 54. Several jars similar to the current example, with raised lines inside the mouth, curled lip, and carved decoration, have been found in the late Northern Song strata at the Yaozhou kiln at Huangbao zhen. See Shaanxi Tongchuan Yaozhou yao, Beijing, 1965, pl. 19, no. 3; and Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute and Museum of Yaozhou Ware, Songdai Yaozhou Yaozhi, Beijing, 1998, p. 589. A very similar Yaozhou celadon jar but without the pierced ruyi head design on the foot is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum. See S. Valenstein, Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, rev. ed. 1989, p. 82, no. 76. A similar Yaozhou jar in the collection of the Buffalo Museum of Science is illustrated by N. Wood, Chinese Glazes, London, 1999, p. 117, left hand illustration. And another similar jar with somewhat sketchy carved floral motifs on both body and neck is in the collection of the Museum of Yaozhou Ware, Tongchuan city, Shaanxi province. See The Masterpieces of Yaozhou Ware, op. cit., p. 107, no. 145. Compare also a related vessel of compressed form from Robert E. Barron, III, M.D. collection, discussed and illustrated by Lisa Rotondo-McCord, Heaven and earth seen within: Song ceramics from the Robert Barron Collection, New Orleans, 2003, pp. 50-51, no. 10 and subsequently sold at Christie’s New York, 30 Mar 2005, lot 272.