Page 46 - Sotheby's Arcadian beauty Song Pottery Oct. 3, 2018

THE EDWARD T. CHOW

HANGZHOU GUANYAO

MALLOW FLOWER WASHER

REGINA KRAHL

Guan ware is the Southern Song potters’ answer to Ru, the and ambition in Hangzhou, which enriched the palette of
imperial ware of the North. These two wares have defined ceramic masterpieces, but made it that much more difficult to
taste in ceramics like hardly any other wares before or grasp what guan really is.
after. These seemingly modest, crackled greenish-glazed
We can note a use of different body materials; a wide variety
stonewares were copied in every period, from the moment
of forms including purely ‘ceramic’ shapes and ones copying
they had been created, right up to the present, but never
other materials; an immense range of sizes from small cups
reached. They have gained quasi mythical status.
to massive vases; a large palette of successful glaze tones
We know that guan was produced in Hangzhou, the Southern from shades of beige and grey to intense bluish green; an
Song (1127-1279) capital, but we do not know all that much appearance of glazes without any crazing or with thin-meshed,
else about it. Hangzhou had been declared only a ‘temporary’ with wide-meshed or with layered ‘ice’ crackle; as well as
capital and was embraced reluctantly by the Song ruling different firing methods, with and without spurs. Although a
house, who did not want to leave any doubt about their intent kiln producing top quality guan ware, Laohudong, has been
to regain control over the northern regions they had lost to the located and excavated in Hangzhou, given this variety, it is
Jin (1115-1234). When the Song moved there, Hangzhou did difficult to believe that it was the only kiln working for the
not offer any of the amenities the court had taken for granted. court. And the subsequent connoisseurs’ literature has further
Suitable palace structures took time to be built, levels of obscured the fringes, so that, where beige-coloured wares are
comfort of any kind only slowly improved, and the provision concerned, it is now difficult to know where guan ends and ge
of goods and services could only gradually be assured. The begins. This, luckily, does not affect the present piece.
supply of ceramics to the court was only one small aspect of
In spite of this wide spectrum, the potters of the official kilns
the immense logistic challenges facing the administration,
in Hangzhou nevertheless perfectly captured in their creations
but not the least complex. As the region did not produce any
– like great artists and artisans anywhere – the spirit of their
ceramics of a suitably high standard, manufactories able to
times. The Song dynasty (960-1279) was marked by two
produce ceramics of the highest order, unmatched world-
contrasting Confucian concepts of thought, one conservative,
wide, had to be built up from scratch.
personified in particular by Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072), who
We do not know whether potters from the Ru kilns of Baofeng advocated a revaluation of ancient tradition as a source for
in Henan followed the Song – forcibly or voluntarily – to the moral principles and a guideline for righteous behaviour; the
South, but it seems quite possible, since after the move of other reformist, propagated by Wang Anshi (1021-1086), who
the ruling house the Ru manufactories declined to the level proposed idealistic reforms to achieve an ideal social order,
of provincial workshops, while other kiln centres, such as and himself practiced an exemplary simple, frugal lifestyle.
Ding in Hebei, Jun in Henan or Yaozhou in Shaanxi continued
It would seem that these two schools of thought are also
to produce high-quality wares also for the court of the Jin,
reflected in the period’s aesthetic ideals. Two very different
without any immediately obvious stylistic or qualitative
trends can certainly be perceived among guan wares, where
decline. In the South, different raw materials, kiln structures,
two styles seem to rival with each other: on the one hand,
firing methods and – at least partly – differently trained
the evocation of the past through archaistic works that follow
artisans, made a seamless continuation impossible, and
in shape and design archaic jades and bronzes and tend to
that proved to be a lucky constellation, since it enabled
be stately and imposing; on the other hand, a proposition of
development into a new direction.
something radically new, a contemporary style that convinces
Today, Ru and guan ware – the preferred choices of the Song through clarity and precision of its outlines and proportions,
ruling house before and after the relocation – are equally and minimalism in shape and design. Such works – like the
celebrated and equally rare, and probably always were. present washer – convey a fresh and airy spirit that can
Yet, it would be difficult to compile a Catalogue Raisonné equally be detected among the monochrome lacquerwares
of the worldwide patrimony of heirloom guan wares, as of the period, an art form that had only just begun to be
we were able to do for heirloom Ru wares in last season’s appreciated. With this new aesthetic concept Song arts and
Song catalogue (Hong Kong, 3rd October 2017, pp. 66-77). crafts were incredibly advanced, about a millennium ahead
While Ru represents a fairly consistent body of wares that of their times, as this style brings to mind ‘Bauhaus’ ideals
are closely related in shape, manufacturing method, glaze of simplicity and functionality, as they became dominant in
type and overall style, this is not the case for guan. Although 20th-century Germany and beyond. This also explains why
all Hangzhou guan wares are monochrome stonewares they remain to be so influential on artists and artisans today.
with celadon-coloured glazes, just like Ru, the variety of
While one might think that in the Song, works evoking the past
types made for the court in the Southern Song capital is
would have been ranked higher than innovative items, it is
phenomenal. It suggests a lengthy process of experimentation
interesting to note the relative grading of old and new styles

44 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比