Lot 2834. A Very Rare Sgraffiato Cizhou ‘Peony’ Vase, Northern Song-Jin Dynasty, 12th Century. Estimate HK$1,000,000-1,500,000 ($130,000-190,000). Unsold. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The vase is potted with an ovoid body tapering sharply towards a tall spreading foot, surmounted by a trumpet neck below an everted rim. The body is carved through black slip to depict a broad peony scroll borne on leafy stem above a band of petals against a ground of white slip, under a clear glaze. The foot and base are applied with darkish-brown slip and unglazed. 8 7/8 in. (22.5 cm.) high, wood stand, Japanese wood box

Provenance: Kochukyo, Tokyo

Exhibited: The Kuboso Memorial Museum of Arts, Hana no utsuwa (Flower Vase), Izumi, 2 October to 27 November 1994, Catalogue, no. 101
Kochukyo, Soji (Song Ceramics), Tokyo, 2 to 4 October 1998, Catalogue, no. 2
Christie’s, The Classical Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 22 to 27 November 2012; New York, 15 to 20 March 2013; London, 10 to 14 May 2013, Catalogue, no. 49

Literature: Kochukyo, Soji (Song Ceramics), Tokyo, 1998, no. 26
Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, Charm of Black & White Ware: Transition of Cizhou Type Wares, 2002, no. 36

Notes: Cizhou sgraffiato decoration, as displayed by the current vase is remarkably difficult to execute successfully. This technique involved covering the vessel with a white slip, and after drying applying a dark slip over the top. Areas of the dark slip were then cut away leaving the decoration in dark brown against a white ground. Details of the decoration were also incised through the dark slip, using a sharp point, to reveal the paler slip beneath. The vessel was then covered in a colourless transparent glaze and the piece fired. The decorator had to employ great skill and care in cutting the ground of the decoration away, since it was difficult not to cut too deeply and remove some of the pale slip along with the dark.

A small number of related vases using this decorative technique are published, such as the vase in The Matsuoka Museum of Art, illustrated in Selected Masterpieces of Oriental Ceramics, Tokyo, 1984, no. 23; and a vase of similar form and decoration but with a rounded body is published in T. Mikami, Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 13, Tokyo, 1981, p. 238, no. 229. The current type also has a green glazed version, such as the Cizhou sgraffiato vase of very similar proportion and decoration in the Ataka collection, illustrated in Masterpieces of Old Chinese Ceramics from Ataka Collection, Osaka, 1972, Catalogue, no. 21. Another example with a compressed body is the collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by He Li, in Chinese Ceramics: A New Comprehensive Survey, New York, 1996, no. 319. Compare also Cizhou vases of similar form and pattern but decorated in slip painting and incising technique, such as two vases in the  Gotoh Art Museum, Japan, illustrated in Mayuyama Seventy Years, Tokyo, 1976, vol. 1, pp.188-189, nos. 559-560.

Christie's. THE CLASSIC AGE OF CHINESE CERAMICS - THE LINYUSHANREN COLLECTION, PART I, 2 December 2015, Convention Hall.