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Lot Essay
Marbling, known as jiao tai in Chinese, became a popular decorative technique on Tang dynasty ceramics and was applied to a variety of forms, including jars, cups, bowls, dishes, and censers. Sections of marbled clay were also inlaid into larger objects, such as pillows, to create a striking decorative effect. The popularity of marbled wares among the Tang aristocracy is demonstrated by the discovery of a small number of horses made from marbled clay among the burial goods of Princess Yongtai, who received a grand reinterment in AD 706.
The marbled appearance could be achieved either by combining clays of different colors during the formation of the vessel or by applying two contrasting slips to its surface. In both cases, the finished piece was subsequently covered with a transparent glaze. The most common glazes were amber, as seen on the present covered jar, as well as green and colorless glazes. Examination of the current jar and cover clearly shows that it was made by combining contrasting clays, and further reveals that the upper and lower halves were constructed separately before being luted together. This process required considerable technical skill on the part of the potter and was executed with notable success on the current jar. The effect is less refined on a smaller, similarly glazed jar lacking a cover, excavated at Xianyang, Shaanxi province, in 1952. The tomb from which the Xianyang jar was recovered has been dated to AD 714. The jar, now in the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, is illustrated in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan – Taoci juan, 1993, p. 247, no. 246. Another larger marbled jar with amber glaze, also lacking a cover, is illustrated by R. Krahl in Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. I, 1994, no. 230.
A marbled bowl with amber glaze in the Tokyo National Museum is illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 11, Sui Tang, Tokyo, pp. 101–2, no. 79. The popularity of Tang dynasty marbled wares in Japan is further evidenced by the excavation of shards from a Chinese 8th-century marbled pillow at the site of Daian-ji Temple in Nara, illustrated in the same volume, p. 252, no. 237. Such marbled pillows were produced at a number of kiln sites in northern China, including the Gongxian kilns in Henan province. A small ring-handled cup with similar marbling and amber glaze, formerly in the Anders Hellström Collection and now in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 8, Tokyo, 1982, no. 25.
The marbled appearance could be achieved either by combining clays of different colors during the formation of the vessel or by applying two contrasting slips to its surface. In both cases, the finished piece was subsequently covered with a transparent glaze. The most common glazes were amber, as seen on the present covered jar, as well as green and colorless glazes. Examination of the current jar and cover clearly shows that it was made by combining contrasting clays, and further reveals that the upper and lower halves were constructed separately before being luted together. This process required considerable technical skill on the part of the potter and was executed with notable success on the current jar. The effect is less refined on a smaller, similarly glazed jar lacking a cover, excavated at Xianyang, Shaanxi province, in 1952. The tomb from which the Xianyang jar was recovered has been dated to AD 714. The jar, now in the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, is illustrated in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan – Taoci juan, 1993, p. 247, no. 246. Another larger marbled jar with amber glaze, also lacking a cover, is illustrated by R. Krahl in Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. I, 1994, no. 230.
A marbled bowl with amber glaze in the Tokyo National Museum is illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 11, Sui Tang, Tokyo, pp. 101–2, no. 79. The popularity of Tang dynasty marbled wares in Japan is further evidenced by the excavation of shards from a Chinese 8th-century marbled pillow at the site of Daian-ji Temple in Nara, illustrated in the same volume, p. 252, no. 237. Such marbled pillows were produced at a number of kiln sites in northern China, including the Gongxian kilns in Henan province. A small ring-handled cup with similar marbling and amber glaze, formerly in the Anders Hellström Collection and now in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 8, Tokyo, 1982, no. 25.