LIAO/NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY, 10TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE AMBER-GLAZED INCISED EWER
LIAO/NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY, 10TH CENTURY
The ewer has an ovoid body raised on a spreading foot, and the sides are decorated with a rouletted wave pattern below a grooved border and a band of rouletted arches and impressed circles on the shoulder, which is applied with a curved spout that issues from the jaws of a horned dragon head set opposite the ribbed strap handle. The neck is encircled by a collar and grooved bands, and is surmounted by a cup-shaped rim. The vessel is covered with a transparent glaze of rich amber color that pools in the recesses.
8¾ in. (22.2 cm.) high, two Japanese wood boxes, one inscribed by the renowned Japanese scholar Fujio Koyama (1900-1975)

Provenance

Ryuzaburo Umehara (1888-1986) Collection, Japan.

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Michael Bass

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Lot Essay

This rare ewer is similar in shape, glaze color, and the rouletted wave pattern on the body, to a ewer, also dated Liao dynasty, 10th century, in the Frederick M. Mayer Collection of Chinese Art, sold in our London rooms, 24-25 June 1974, lot 25, and subsequently illustrated by W. Watson in Tang and Liao Ceramics, New York, 1984, p. 233, pl. 278. Unlike the present ewer, the spout issues from the beak of a bird, not the jaws of a dragon, and the handle has a loop at the top and does not appear to be ribbed.

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