Page 8 - Sotheby's New York Linyushanren Part IV Auction September 13, 2018

The Endless Fascination of Cizhou Wares

Rosemary Scott, Senior International Academic Consultant

The ceramics that are known by the term ‘Cizhou wares’ 磁州窯 are River burst its banks and fooded a large area of Xing prefecture 邢州.
probably the most varied group in Chinese ceramic history in terms This event submerged Juluxian, with the exception of the pagoda and
of their decoration, and the current sale includes a very interesting the Luohan Hall 羅漢堂 of the Sanmingsi, in some 20 feet of mud. It
selection both of forms and decorative techniques. Amongst these may therefore be presumed that the year 1108 provides a terminus ante
are a number of vessels which may be associated with a particular quem for any artefacts found at the site.
archaeological site, the name of which is often applied to one
In 1918-19 local workers found some evidence of this historical
specifc type of undecorated Cizhou ware. This is the habitation site, and a year later in 1920, during the digging of a well - in
site of Juluxian in Hebei province 鉅鹿縣 河北省. According to the
consequence of a period of drought - a signifcant amount of further
inscription on a stele dated to the third year of the Xuanhe reign
material was discovered. Later in 1920 a team of researchers from
period (宣和1119 – 1125), equivalent to AD 1121, in the Miaoyan Hall
the Tianjin Museum carried out a professional investigation of
妙巖堂 of the Sanmingsi 三明 寺 Buddhist temple, on the xinsi 辛巳 the site, and also acquired a substantial amount of material which
cyclical day of the eighth month of the second year of the Daguan 大
had previously been found by local people. The Tianjin Museum
觀 reign period (1107-1110) of the Emperor Huizong (徽宗 r. 1100-
published their fndings in Li Xiangqi and Zhang Houhuang 李
1125), which is equivalent to 10 September AD 1108, the Yellow
詳耆, 張厚璜, Julu Songqi conglu, (鉅鹿宋器叢錄 Catalogue of Song
Artefacts from Julu), Tianjin 天津, 1923. Interestingly, several of the
pieces published by the Tianjin researchers bore inscriptions written
on their bases in ink, giving the date of their purchase and/or the
name of the purchaser. All these predate the year of the disastrous
food in 1108. Further investigations of the site were carried out in
1921 by the National Historical Museum, Beijing, and these were
published in ‘Julu Songdai gucheng fajue jilu’ (鉅鹿宋代古城發掘記
錄 Notes on a Song dynasty ancient city excavated at Julu), Guoli
lishi bowuguan congkan (國立歷史博物館叢刊 Bulletin of the National
Historical Museum), vol. 1, no. 1, 1926. This latter investigation
concentrated on two dwellings – one belonging to a family by the
name of Wang and the other to a family called Dong – and provided
useful information regarding the context in which items were
used. In late 1934 the Swedish scholar Dr. Nils Palmgren (1890-
1955), while in Beijing, was introduced to Song dynasty ceramic
material – particularly Cizhou wares - from Qinghexian 清河縣,
near Juluxian, by an antique dealer friend named Xia Xizhong. In
May 1935 Palmgren managed to acquire books providing historical
information on both Qinghexian and Juluxian and in 1936 he and his
wife Gertrude set out to visit these two important sites. The results
of Palmgren’s studies of these and other sites (together with scientifc
and geological analyses by Drs Walter Steger and Nils Sundius) were
published in Sung Sherds, Stockholm/Göteborg/Uppsala, 1963. The
book, which was published after Palmgren’s death, is dedicated to
His Majesty King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden as the latter had been
a keen collector and supporter of research into Chinese art, and Dr.
Palmgren had corresponded with the king while in China and had
been Keeper of His Majesty’s collection of Chinese art for many
years. The Juluxian site was also the subject of an unpublished thesis
by Margaret Carney Xie entitled Chü-lü: a Northern Sung ceramic
legacy, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1991.
The largest proportion of the Song dynasty ceramic material found
at Juluxian comprised white wares (see N. Palmgren, Sung Sherds,
Stockholm/Göteborg/Uppsala, 1963, colour plates opposite pp. 294
and 296), but it should be noted that a wide range of other ceramics
were also found at the site. These included black and brown glazed
wares (see ibid., colour plate opposite p. 272), northern and southern
celadon wares – some with carved or moulded decoration (see ibid.,
Lot 802 colour plate opposite p. 276), shards from vessels bearing Jun-type
拍品802號

6 Masterpieces of Cizhou Ware: The Linyushanren Collection, Part IV 磁州窯集珍：古韻天成-臨宇山人珍藏（四）