Black ware bowl with white rim, 11th - 12th century, Northern Song Dynasty
Black ware bowl with white rim, 11th - 12th century (1001 - 1200), Northern Song Dynasty (AD 960 - 1127), stoneware, thrown, with black iron glaze; rim, covered in white slip under a transparent glaze; unglazed base, 5.2 cm (height) - 11.6 cm (diameter). Lent by the Sir Alan Barlow Collection Trust. LI1301.385, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford © The University of Sussex
The bowl has rounded conical sides with an everted rim, and a straight, nearly solid foot with broad, shallow footring. The inside and outside are glazed in a glossy black, turning brown where it is thinner, near the rim and in patches on the outside, with a broad band at the rim wiped free of black glaze, dipped in white slip and covered with a transparent glaze. Slivers of grey biscuit and white slip are exposed between the two glazes. The footring and base are also free of glaze and slip, and above the glazed foot is an unglazed groove. Fine grit adheres to the footring.
Black ware bowl with white rim, 1020 - 1120, Northern Song Dynasty (AD 960 - 1127)
Black ware bowl with white rim, 1020 - 1120, Northern Song Dynasty (AD 960 - 1127), stoneware, with white and black iron glazes; unglazed base; glazed rim, 5.8 cm (height) - 13 cm (diameter) - at base 9.2 cm (diameter). Presented by Sir Herbert Ingram, 1956. EA1956.1125, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Cizhou type dish with floral decoration, Cizhou kiln-sites, 11th century
Cizhou type dish with floral decoration, Cizhou kiln-sites, 11th century (1001 - 1100), stoneware, covered in white slip, and with black slip-painted decoration under a transparent glaze; unglazed base; glazed rim, 4 cm (height) - 18 cm (diameter) - at foot 6.6 cm (diameter). Presented by P. H. Wikramaratna, in memory of his wife Nancy, 1992. EA1992.109, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Cizhou ware vase with floral decoration and foliated rim, Cizhou kiln-sites, 12th - 13th century (1101 - 1300), Jin Dynasty
Cizhou ware vase with floral decoration and foliated rim, Cizhou kiln-sites, 12th - 13th century (1101 - 1300), Jin Dynasty (1115 - 1234), stoneware, thrown, covered in white slip, and with brown slip-painted decoration under a transparent glaze; unglazed base, with ink inscription; glazed rim, 20.3 cm (height) - 9.4 cm (diameter) - at base 7.4 cm (diameter). Lent by the Sir Alan Barlow Collection Trust., LI1301.187, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford © The University of Sussex
This piece, which is inscribed in ink with a date, has often been used as evidence for dating a whole range of painted ‘Cizhou’ ware. The date, however, is inscribed on a double base, which most probably was added later. Although the base fits very well in shape and size, the custom of adding a separately made base to a vessel is not known from the Jin dynasty (1115–1234).
The partly illegible inscription reads ? yu ? ? nian wu yue chu (‘beginning of the fifth month of the … year of the …yu period’) and the date has been interpreted as ‘eleventh year of Chunyu’, a reign period of the Southern Song dynasty, the year corresponding to 1251. Neither the first character of the reign name, nor the figure are clearly legible, however, and it seems surprising to find a piece made in North China to be inscribed with a Southern Song date.
The vase has a wide shoulder, a narrow waisted neck which flares to a foliated five-lobed rim, and rests on a wide foot, which is supported on a separately attached, conical plinth. The shoulder shows two grooves. The buff stoneware is slipped, painted in iron-brown with a floral sprig on both sides, each with a pendant pointed bloom among foliage, and covered with a crazed, yellow-tinged transparent glaze, which stops around the foot. The support is unglazed, the joint hidden under white slip. The underside of the support is inscribed in black ink with eight Chinese characters.
Cizhou ware vase with floral decoration, Cizhou kiln-sites, 12th - 13th century (1101 - 1300), Jin Dynasty (1115 - 1234)
Cizhou ware vase with floral decoration, Cizhou kiln-sites, 12th - 13th century (1101 - 1300), Jin Dynasty (1115 - 1234), stoneware, thrown, covered in white slip, and with brown slip-painted decoration under a transparent glaze; unglazed base; glazed rim, 24.7 cm (height) - 12.5 cm (diameter) - at foot 7.2 cm (diameter). Lent by the Sir Alan Barlow Collection Trust., LI1301.189, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford © The University of Sussex
This form, known in Chinese as meiping (‘prunus blossom bottle’), was one of the most characteristic Chinese shapes since the Song dynasty (AD 960–1279). Examples were produced by most Chinese kilns and remain popular until today. Compare also a jar with a similar design in the Barlow Collection [LI1301.330].
The piece is well potted, of slender form, tapering from the rounded shoulders towards the base, where it is slightly flared, and terminating in a low, narrow neck with an everted sloping rim. The base is recessed and has a high footring. The yellowish-beige stoneware bears a white slip, applied in two layers, and is painted with three brown foliate sprays under a transparent glaze. The different layers of slip and glaze are ending unevenly above the base, leaving footring and base in the biscuit.
Boucheron, Splendeurs de Russie - Splendors of Russia
Splendeurs de Russie. In Splendeurs de Russie - Splendors of Russia - Boucheron looked to majesty of the icy Russian winter. Crystalline snowflakes and gentle, sweeping shapes create the graceful Russian mood.
La Maison a figuré les grands froids de l’immensité russe, leur scintillement et la grâce cristalline de flocons joailliers. Les parures altières et toute en légèreté réinterprètent l’esprit des créations réalisées par la Maison depuis 1858 pour les grandes figures de l’Empire.
Boucheron. The Splendeur de Russie convertible necklace-tiara and earrings.
The Splendeur de Russie convertible necklace-tiara uses the Boucheron “knife-edge” thread to set its many stones.
Boucheron. The Splendeur de Russie convertible necklace-tiara.
A pair of tiara sketches from Boucheron’s archives and the Splendeur de Russie necklace/tiara they helped inspire.
White gold is flattened into a thread and rendered nearly invisible, then used to set the diamonds which appear to magically float.
Boucheron Splendeurs de Russie. Eternity diamond pendant necklace.
Boucheron Splendeurs de Russie earrings in white gold and diamonds.
Boucheron Splendeurs de Russie ring in white gold and diamonds.
Greenware bowl with lotus petals, Longquan kilns, 13th century (1201 - 1300), Southern Song Dynasty-Yuan Dynasty
Greenware bowl with lotus petals, Longquan kilns, 13th century (1201 - 1300), Southern Song Dynasty (1127 - 1279) - Yuan Dynasty (1279 - 1368), stoneware, thrown, with carved decoration under a green celadon glaze; glazed base; glazed rim, 7.2 cm height) - 15 cm (diameter). Lent by the Sir Alan Barlow Collection Trust., LI1301.101, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford © The University of Sussex
This bowl, with narrower petals than the other lotus bowl in the Barlow Collection, [LI1301.193], is slightly later than date. Related bowls, excavated from tombs datable to 1274 and 1275, respectively, at the very end of the Southern Song period (1127–1279), have been excavated in Zhejiang province, but their production continued well into the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368).
The bowl has rounded, steeply conical sides and flares at the rim, the narrow foot tapers and the recessed base is pointed. The piece is heavily potted and carved on the outside with slender overlapping lotus petals in relief. The yellowish-green glaze fully covers the piece except for the footring which shows a reddish-brown biscuit.
Greenware bowl with floral decoration, Yaozhou kilns, 12th - 13th century, Jin Dynasty (1115 - 1234)
Greenware bowl with floral decoration, Yaozhou kilns, 12th - 13th century (1101 - 1300), Jin Dynasty (1115 - 1234), stoneware, thrown, with press-moulded decoration under a green glaze; glazed base; glazed rim, 5.5 cm (height) - 12.5 cm (diameter). Lent by the Sir Alan Barlow Collection Trust., LI1301.288, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford © The University of Sussex
Bowls of this type belonged to the standard repertoire of the Yaozhou kilns (see Songdai Yaozhou yaozhi [Yaozhou kiln sites of the Song dynasty], Beijing, 1998, pl.XX, figs.3-6), but were equally copied by other kilns in the vicinity.
The bowl has slightly rounded, conical sides and an everted rim, set off with a distinct groove on the outside. The inside is moulded with a dense flower scroll pattern, the central bloom inscribed with the character wang (a family name), surrounded by a scroll with three fully opened blooms between three smaller ones, still partly closed and depicted in side view, among overall foliage. A band at the rim was left plain and the outside is undecorated. A grey-green glaze fully covers the piece except for the footring; foot and base have grit adhering.
Greenware bowl with waves and floral decoration, Yaozhou kilns, 12th century, Jin Dynasty (1115 - 1234)
Greenware bowl with waves and floral decoration, Yaozhou kilns, 12th century (1101 - 1200), Jin Dynasty (1115 - 1234), stoneware, thrown, with carved and combed decoration under a green glaze; unglazed base; glazed rim, 11.4 cm (height) - 22.3 cm (diameter) - at foot 7 cm (diameter). Lent by the Sir Alan Barlow Collection Trust., LI1301.76, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford © The University of Sussex
A fragmentary bowl of related type, but probably slightly earlier in date, discovered at the Yaozhou kiln site, is published in Songdai Yaozhou yaozhi [Yaozhou kiln sites of the Song dynasty], Beijing, 1998, pl.XXXI, fig.1. A similar bowl from the Rockefeller Collection is inscribed with a date equivalent to 1162.
The large bowl has conical sides with a broad groove below the rim, and a tapering foot with a recessed base. The inside is decorated with a wide band of lotus, carved with a broad tool and depicting two slender flowers and two leaves among combed lines to render curving waves, the centre and a broad band at the rim are undecorated. Outside is a broad cash-diaper border and a highly stylized flower scroll with two blooms flanked by leaves, all quickly carved. The matt, yellowish-olive glaze covers both inside and outside, but leaves a broad ring inside as well as the foot and base free, for firing in a stack. The exposed body has a light grey colour.
Guan ware brush washer, Hangzhou, 12th century, China, Southern Song dynasty (AD 960-1127)
Guan ware brush washer, Hangzhou (Guan kiln), 12th century (1101 - 1200), China, Southern Song dynasty (AD 960-1127), stoneware, thrown, with blue crackled glaze; glazed base; glazed rim, 3.4 cm (height) - 11.8 cm (diameter). Lent by the Sir Alan Barlow Collection Trust., LI1301.48, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford © The University of Sussex
When the Song (AD 960–1279) lost the northern part of their empire to the Jin dynasty (1115-1234) and moved the capital south to Hangzhou in 1127, they also lost access to the best ceramic manufactories of the north. Official (guan) kilns were therefore set up in the capital to supply the court. Although they copied the finest wares of the north, notably ‘Ru’, with the southern materials the results were quite different and established a new style. Guan ware became so highly regarded that it has been imitated ever since.
The small piece is finely potted and richly glazed, the everted sides shaped in ten double-lobed foliations, which continue onto the footring, the base is domed on the inside, concave on the underside, where the glaze shows five small dot-shaped spur marks. The piece is otherwise fully covered with a rich bluish-grey glaze of extremely smooth texture, thinning to reveal the dark clay at the rim, and displaying an attractive even dark-stained crackle overall.
