Page 48 - Sotheby's October 3 2017 Song Ceramics

A Rare Black Flower
Picked by Alfred Clark
Regina Krahl
H ighly impressive, with its captivating brown markings on
a rich black glaze, yet elegant and graceful, its generous
shape daringly raised on a narrow foot, this superb dish is unique.
Although the six-lobed shape is not immediately associated with
any particular bloom, this vessel evokes flowers of rare beauty
such as the black hibiscus. Of exceptional quality, it is one of
those exceedingly scarce Song (960-1279) black wares, that do
not need to shy comparison with the finest contemporary white
and green wares. This dish is so individual in style and execution
that its precise attribution provides a challenge. Black wares were
made by most north-Chinese kilns, but they often represented a
minor by-product of a manufactory that was famous for a different
production line, as was the case, for example, at the Ru kilns of
Baofeng in Henan province. Only the Ding manufactories of Quyang
in Hebei province are known to have devoted particular care to their
black wares, and this was duly noted by connoisseurs like Cao Zhao,
who records in the Ge gu yao lun [Essential criteria of antiquities],
first published in 1388, “There are also purple Ting [Ding] and ink
Ting wares, the latter as black as lacquer. Their paste, however,
is white. Like white Ting pieces, they were also produced at
Ting-chou, but are more expensive.” (Sir Percival David, Chinese
Connoisseurship: The Ko Ku Yao Lun: The Essential Criteria of
Antiquities, London, 1971, p. 141 and p. 306). Ding wares are the
only northern black wares he mentions.
The present dish is extremely finely potted, its six-lobed flower
shape, reminiscent of contemporary lacquer, created by cutting
small triangular indents from the rim and generating faint radiating
grooves outside (for a lacquer comparison see fig. 1, a dish from
the collection of Sakamoto Gorō, sold in these rooms, 8th October
2013, lot 141). In ceramics, six-lobed dishes of this deep angled form fragmentary conical bowl shows a deep black glaze with similar
have been recovered from the Zhanggongxiang kilns in Ru county,
Henan, the only kilns known to have created pieces on a par and
similar to Ru ware, but of which almost no examples are extant (see
Ruyao yu Zhanggongxiangyao chutu ciqi/Ceramic Art Unearthed
from the Ru Kiln Site and Zhanggongxiang Kiln Site, Beijing, 2009,
pp. 87 and 100-102; and Lu Minghua, ‘Liang Song guanyao youguan
wenti yanjiu [Research on questions relating to the official wares of
both Song periods], Nan Song guanyao wenji/A Collection of Essays
on Southern Song Dynasty Guan Kiln, Beijing, 2004, pp. 149, figs
8-12).
46 | SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比
Although the six-lobed flower shape is well known from white and
brown-glazed (‘purple’) Ding wares, most of these have a flat base
without a foot (Ding ci ya ji. Gugong Bowuyuan zhencang ji chutu
Dingyao ciqi huicui/Selection of Ding Ware. The Palace Museum’s
Collection and Archaeological Excavation, Palace Museum, Beijing,
2012, pls 73 and 89). Those that do show this elegant angled
shape, raised on a fairly narrow foot, have an unglazed rim on
which they were fired (Ding yao bai ci tezhan tulu/Catalogue of the
Special Exhibition of Ting Ware White Porcelain, National Palace
Museum, Taipei, 1987, cat. nos 77 and 78). Nigel Wood writes
about the present “fine northern blackware bowl” … “The non-
vitrifying northern clays allowed more extreme forms than were
possible with southern porcelains – such as this imitation of a
lacquer dish, with its wide overhang above its foot. A similar form
was used for some contemporary Ding wares, but these were fired
rim down.” (Nigel Wood, Chinese Glazes. Their Origin, Chemistry
and Recreation, London, 1999, p. 142). On the present dish the
difference in diameter between the very small foot and the wide rim
is more pronounced than on white Ding counterparts, or on similar
shapes from southern kilns. One related persimmon-glazed dish
was included together with the present dish in the exhibition Sōdai
no tōji/Sung Ceramics, Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, 1979, cat.
no. 76.
No piece closely comparable to the present dish appears to have
been published and vessels related in style and quality are not
known from any ceramic workshops other than the Ding kiln group
in Quyang. Of the already small number of black sherds excavated
or recovered from the Ding kiln site, only very few are patterned
with brown splashes, all apparently belonging to conical bowls. One
brown markings as the present piece, but the glaze has been wiped
away above the foot, which may be the reason it was rejected (fig.
2, Ding ci ya ji. Gugong Bowuyuan zhencang ji chutu Dingyao ciqi
huicui/Selection of Ding Ware. The Palace Museum’s Collection
and Archaeological Excavation, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2012, pl.
97, and Teiyō. Yūgu naru haku no sekai: Yōshi hakkutsu seika/Ding
Ware. The World of White Elegance: Recent Archaeological Findings,
Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2013, cat. no. 38).