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14 mars 2015

A rare Qingbai meiping, Northern Song dynasty (AD 960-1127)

A rare Qingbai meiping, Northern Song dynasty (AD 960-1127)

A rare Qingbai meiping, Northern Song dynasty (AD 960-1127). Estimate $80,000 – $120,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The well-potted ovoid body is incised with five double vertical lines rising from the unglazed foot to a bow-string band encircling the rounded shoulder, and is covered with a translucent glaze of pale aquamarine tone applied in two layers. 11 ½ in. (29.2 cm.) high, box

ProvenanceBluett & Sons, London, 1991.
Robert Barron Collection, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Christie's New York, 30 March 2005, lot 308.

Literature: S. Rotondo-McCord and R. Mowry, Heaven and Earth Seen Within, New Orleans, 2000, no. 44.

ExhibitedHeaven and Earth Seen Within, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, 2000, no. 44.

Notes: The form of this elegant qingbai meiping is characteristic of Northern Song production at the Jingdezhen kilns. The gently rounded, sloping shoulders, somewhat extended neck, and truncated conical mouth differentiate it from themeiping forms of the Southern Song and Yuan dynasties. See S. Pierson (ed.), Qingbai Ware: Chinese Porcelain of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Percival David Foundation, London, 2002, p. 22, figs. 15-17. The current vase appears to be the largest of the published qingbai examples of this form with incised lobes. Two similar but slightly smaller examples in museum collections have been published. One (24.4 cm.) formerly in the collection of His Majesty King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden, which is now in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, is illustrated inOriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 8, Tokyo, 1982, col. pl. 36.; the other (24.7 cm.) is illustrated by J. Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, fig. 87.

The use of vertical, finely incised, parallel lines to produce a lobed effect can also be seen on a late Northern Songqingbai ewer in a Japanese collection and designated an Important Cultural Property. See Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka (ed.), Song Ceramics, Tokyo, 1999, p. 83, no. 46. The subtle incised lobing seen on the current vase and the ewer, continued in popularity after the Northern Song period, and was transferred in the Southern Song to other qingbai vessel forms from the Jingdezhen kilns. The distinctive straight foot and finely incised lobing on thismeiping can be seen on two published Southern Song vessels. These are a lidded jar with columnar neck and four small lugs on the shoulder in the Shanghai Museum, and a dish-mouthed jar which has a coiled, modeled dragon around the columnar neck, excavated at Shunchangxian, Fujian, and now in the Fujian Provincial Museum. SeeZhongguo taoci quanji - 16 - Song Yuan Qingbaici, Shanghai, 1984, nos. 34 and 30 respectively. 

Another qingbai meiping of the some shape as the present vase, but with a somewhat less pronounced torque around the shoulder, is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing. See Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 33 - Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), Hong Kong, 1996, pp. 182-3, no. 166. The Beijing vase does not have the incised lobing of the current vessel, but instead is decorated with a carved floral scroll set against a ground textured with dotted combing. See, also, the qingbai vase of this form with floral scrolls on a striated ground in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum illustrated by G. Hasebe, Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 12, Tokyo, 1977, p. 169, no. 165. 

The current vase has a particularly beautiful ice-blue glaze. There is a thicker band of glaze around the middle of the vessel, which is the result of the vase being dipped in the glaze vat twice and the two layers of glaze overlapping. On this meiping the slightly deeper color of the thicker glaze serves to enhance the swelling form of the vessel. In contrast to the refinement of the current vase, a rougher version of this form was made at the Lushan kilns in Henan province. See P. Hughes-Stanton and R. Kerr, Kiln Sites of Ancient China, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1980, p. 157, no. 415. Since the Lushan vase lacks the fine white porcelain body of the current qingbai vase, the Henan potters have covered the vessel with white slip, giving it a heavier appearance. 

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 15 - 16 March 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza

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