Page 24 - Sotheby's Arcadian beauty Song Pottery Oct. 3, 2018

3102

A RARE BROWN 宋 褐漆缽
LACQUER ALMS BOWL

SONG DYNASTY

exquisitely modelled with a compressed globuar
body rising from a rounded base to an incurved
rim, attractively covered overall with brown
lacquer
16 cm, 6¼ in.

HK$ 300,000-400,000
US$ 38,300-51,000

Fashioned to sit perfectly in two cupped hands,
this bowl is unusual for its uniformly rounded
form which features no foot or base and was
probably placed on a stand. Bowls of this
form, which formed one of the four essential
possessions of Buddhist monks and were used
to solicit food from the laity, are best known
from the images of Bhaisajyaguru, the Medicine
Buddha, who is often depicted holding a related
alms bowl in his left hand.
See a larger black lacquer alms bowl with a flat
base and a cover, attributed to the Five Dynasties
to the early Northern Song period, excavated in
1978 from Futian gongshe, Jianli, Hubei province
and now preserved in the Jingzhou Museum,
Jingzhou, illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji
feilei. Zhongguo qiqi quanji [Compendium of
Chinese lacquer], vol. 4. Sanguo – Yuan, Fuzhou,
1998, pl. 67. This form experienced a renaissance
during the Qianlong period (r. 1736-1795) and
was reinterpreted in a wide variety of media;
for example see a Qianlong mark and period
cloisonné enamel alms bowl decorated with the
Eight Buddhist Emblems, in the Palace Museum,
Beijing, illustrated in Compendium of Collections
in the Palace Museum, Enamels, vol. 2, Cloisonné
in the Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2011, pl. 261; and a
spinach-green jade alms bowl decorated overall
with writhing dragons, from the Thompson-
Schwab collection, sold in our London rooms, 9th
November 2016, lot 26.

22 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比