Page 60 - Beyond Compare Christie's Hong Kong RU WARE .pdf

BEYOND COMPARE: A Thousand Years of the Literati Aesthetic

a remarkably risky venture. The potter undertaking this firing method had to hope
that the foot ring of the bowl or bowl-stand and the spurred setter would shrink by
the same amount and at the same rate during firing. If there was any difference in
shrinkage the vessel would have fallen off the spurs and the piece would be ruined.

Given the extreme rarity of this firing method and the risks concomitant with its
application, it seems likely that it may have been used only by special command.
Surely no potter would court such a strong likelihood of disaster unless the order to
do so came directly from the emperor.
Ru wares, however, continued to be greatly valued after the fall of the Northern Song.

It is undoubtedly the case that, not surprisingly, the early Guan wares produced in
the Southern Song period were closely based on Ru wares, not only in their shapes
and glazes, but also in their firing techniques. This admiration for Northern Song
Ru wares continued in the Ming dynasty, and in the Xuande reign the potters at the
imperial kilns at Jingdezhen attempted to recreate Song Ru-type glazes on the white fig. 5a Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
ॱ̩ B ܀٫४⒤ᐅ೫ښḵ㡗ⳉި
porcelain bodies of Jiangxi. Examples have been excavated from the Xuande stratum
at Zhushan (see Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods Excavated from the
Site of the Ming Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen, Hong Kong, 1989, pp. 276-7, no. 97).

Ru ware was also greatly treasured by the Qing emperors, as is clear from the
Qianlong inscriptions applied to Ru wares still in the National Palace Museum (see
Obtaining Refined Enjoyment - The Qianlong Emperor’s Taste in Ceramics, Taipei, 2012,
pp. 68-91, nos. 10- 22)(figs. 5a, 5b).There is also clear evidence that the Yongzheng
Emperor was also a great admirer of Song Ru wares. It was in the last year of the
Yongzheng reign, AD 1735, that Tang Ying wrote his Taocheng jishi beiji ௗϓߏԫ
຦া‘ (Commemorative Stele on Ceramic Production). On this stele Tang Ying recorded
copies of Song dynasty Ru ware in his list of fifty-seven types of ceramic wares made
for the court:
ͷზ৶ೌ७ϧཊdͷ҂ኜ፟࠮ᆵdɛࠦݹЍዣf

In the National Palace Museum, Taipei catalogue to their 2006 exhibition Grand
View: Special Exhibition of Ju Ware from the Norther Sung Dynasty̏҂ϧᇉत࢝‘the
authors suggest that the shape called ፟࠮ᆵ maoshi pan (literally cat’s food bowl) in
the 1735 stele text is in fact what is usually referred to as a ‘narcissus bowl’ of oval
shape and with four low feet (see View: Special Exhibition of Ju Ware from the Norther
Sung Dynasty̏҂ϧᇉत࢝‘, 2006, pp 32-61, nos. 7-9). (fig. 6). Ru ware vessels
of this form are shown being used as planters in a number of Qing court paintings.
It is possible that in the case of the narcissus bowl form mentioned on the stele, that
Song dynasty Ru ware vessels may have been sent from the court to Jingdezhen in
order for them to be copied.

The Yongzheng Emperor was obviously willing to send precious Song Ru wares from
Beijing to Jingdezhen in order to ensure that potters working at the imperial Qing
kilns were able to produce an accurate copy of the glaze and possibly also the shape.
The description of ‘copper’ body probably refers to the fact that where the glaze on
Song dynasty Ru wares does not cover the body of the vessel during firing, the surface
of the exposed body material re-oxidises when air is allowed into the kiln at the end
of the firing process and the exposed area takes on a reddish colour.
The inexorable attraction of these exquisite Northern Song Ru wares continues to
the present day. Their subtle beauty and their rarity render them the ultimate goal
for collectors, and even among Ru wares the current bowl is undoubtedly one of the
rarest and one of the most beautiful.
(Abridged, a full version is available online)

58 ʔɭ { ҂˾ߕኪɓɷϋ