Page 149 - Sotheby's October 3 2017 Song Ceramics
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fig. 1
Cizhou white-glazed sgraffiato ‘peony’ meiping, Northern Song
dynasty, excavated from Cizhou kiln site at Guantai
© Office for the Protection of Cultural Relics in Ci county
After: Zhao Xuefeng, Zhongguo Cizhouyao [China’s Cizhou
wares], Chongqing, 2004, p. 28.
The lasting admiration for the unrivalled excellence of Song (960- illustrated in Guantai Cizhou yaozhi/The Cizhou Kiln Site at Guantai,
1279) potters derives from two very different achievements: Beijing, 1997, col. pl. XI, no. 2 (fig. 1), together with similarly decorated
on the one hand the understated elegance of the refined green and fragments of other vessels, col. pl. XXI, no. 1, a pillow fragment, pl. XXI,
white table wares, with their subtle tonal nuances and subdued no. 2, and a vase, pl. XXIV, no. 2.
decoration, and on the other hand the bold and striking appearance
of black and white containers, with their swift and vivacious surface A complete meiping of virtually the same shape and design as the
treatments with knife or brush in light/dark contrasts. The present present piece, has also been excavated in Tangyin county, Henan
meiping is a masterpiece of the latter category, which derives its province, and is now in the Henan Museum, published in Zhongguo
beauty from the seemingly nonchalant sgraffiato carving, which in taoci quanji [Complete series on Chinese ceramics], Shanghai,
fact is skilfully laid out over the available space, with no awkward 1999-2000, vol. 7, pl. 203, where it is attributed to the Dangyangyu
gaps or ungainly clusters, and the impeccable potting, manifested in kilns in Xiuwu in the same province. Since the find site is, however,
its neat profile. situated much closer to the Guantai than the Dangyangyu kilns, even
though they are today located in different provinces, and since the
The term Cizhou tends to be freely used for a wide variety of kilns typical Dangyangyu sgraffiato wares are quite different in style (ibid.,
using slip designs, distributed particularly over Hebei and Henan, pls 204, 205 and 211), a Guantai provenance is more likely also for
the most important being the Cizhou type site at Guantai in Cixian that vase. This opinion has also been expressed by Qin Dashu in his
(Ci county), the region formerly called Cizhou, in the southernmost essay ‘Baiyou tihua zhuangshide chansheng, fajue ji xiangguan wenti/
part of Hebei province. The Guantai kilns created not only a very The Origin and Development of White Slip Sgraffito Decoration and
wide variety of decorative styles, but are particularly renowned Related Issues’, Wenwu, 2000, no. 11, p. 70, where both examples are
for their masterful yet free manner of execution, with the potters illustrated, p. 72, fig. 9 and p. 75, fig. 19.
wielding the carving knife, and later the brush, with a spontaneity
like that displayed by the literati painters of the time in their ink A similar peony scroll is also found on a meiping covered in a lead-
paintings. The most important styles, which were developed before green glaze from the Eumorfopoulos collection in the British Museum,
painted decoration became prevalent, were the various sgraffiato London, included in the exhibition Freedom of Clay and Brush through
designs that make decorative use of the contrast between white and Seven Centuries in Northern China, Indianapolis Museum of Art,
black slip, or between white or black slip and the exposed stoneware Indianapolis, 1980, cat. no. 94, where it is compared to a zun-shaped
body, as seen on this impressive meiping, where the potters made vase in the neutral colour scheme of the present vase, in the Idemitsu
decorative use of the subtle colour difference between the light Museum of Arts, Tokyo, fig. 276.
beige-brown body and the ivory-white slip coating.
Due to increasing demand for attractive utilitarian ceramics, kilns
The present piece shows the vigorous decoration of a lively peony making wares similar to Cizhou sprang up all around China during the
scroll characteristic of the Guantai kilns’ production, which has Northern Song dynasty, and related wares were made, for example,
been endowed with a sense of three-dimensionality through its by the Yezicun and Dongaikou kilns in Hebei province, the Dengfeng,
bold outline carving and delicate incised and combed details. A very Bacun, Lushan, Mixian and Dangyangyu kilns in Henan province, the
similar meiping with only two ranks of blooms, but incomplete and Jiexiu kilns in Shanxi, and others.
reconstituted from sherds, was discovered at the kiln site and is
today in the Office for the Protection of Cultural Relics in Ci county,
SONG — IMPORTANT CHINESE CERAMICS FROM THE LE CONG TANG COLLECTION | 147
