Page 48 - Sotheby's Arcadian beauty Song Pottery Oct. 3, 2018

at the Song painting academy during the reign of Emperor and seven spur marks, but the glaze fired to a more opaque
Huizong (r. 1100-1126). Wai-kam Ho relates the guidelines greyish green and showing a denser crackle, and the body
set for grading exams, where students were given the task to fired to a darker brown. In spite of damage to its rim, that
interpret in their paintings a given poetic quote (Wai-kam Ho washer has been repeatedly illustrated and exhibited by the
et al., Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Collections of Museum, and had been sent by the Chinese Government
the Nelson Gallery – Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and The to the International Exhibition of Chinese Art at the Royal
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, 1980, pp. xxviii-xxix): A Academy of Arts, London, 1935-6, and is included in the
‘Lower Grade’ was given to ‘the ability to make imitations or Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Government Exhibits for the
copies that are close approximations to the true character International Exhibition of Chinese Art in London, Shanghai,
of the original’; a ‘Middle Grade’ to those, in whose paintings 1935, vol. II, pl. 80; is it also illustrated in Gugong Song ci tulu.
‘the seeming imitation of old masters [was] amplified and Nan Song Guan yao/Illustrated Catalogue of Sung Dynasty
transcended’, while the ‘Highest Grade’ was reserved for Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, Southern Sung
students who were able to perform the task ‘without imitating Kuan Ware, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1974, pl. 56;
any ancient masters’. In other words, even the intrinsically it was included in the Museum’s major guan exhibition in
conservative arbiters of taste at the Song painting academy 1989, published in Song guanyao tezhan/Catalogue of the
ranked highest the ability to create something new, providing Special Exhibition of Sung Dynasty Kuan Ware, National
of course that it fulfilled certain criteria, among which they Palace Museum, Taipei, 1989, cat. no. 94; and more recently
stipulated that ‘forms and colors are rendered naturally’. in the exhibition Gui si chenxing. Qing gong chuanshi 12 zhi 14
shiji qingci tezhan/Precious as the Morning Star. 12th-14th
The present washer, with its emphasis on tonal variation and
patterns of crazing reminiscent of those manifested by nature Century Celadons in the Qing Court Collection, National
in beautiful stones, embodies this modernity. Hardly a shape Palace Museum, Taipei, 2016, cat. no. II-30 (fig. 3). The
could evoke the stylistic identity of the Southern Song as well National Palace Museum also owns a related washer of water
as the mallow shape with its soft and pleasing outline, without caltrop shape, with the petal-shaped sides pointed at the rim,
any sharp edges. The simplicity of newly devised Song forms ibid., cat. no. II-28.
is already evident in Ru ware, for example, in the Northern Comparisons are otherwise extremely rare; but it is interesting
Song (960-1127) washer from the collection of Alfred Clark, in this context to look at a probably slightly later vessel of this
sold 4th April 2012, lot 101 (fig. 1), to which this guan example mallow flower shape, the famous, somewhat larger piece in
would seem to be a Southern Song echo. the Sir Percival David Collection in the British Museum, no.
A46. This piece lacks spur marks, has shallower sides and
Its soft outline evokes contemporary lacquer ware rather than
thus represents a dish more than a washer, and has a more
metal prototypes, even though close lacquer comparisons are
opaque, milky blue-green glaze; see Illustrated Catalogue of
rare. Mallow-shaped lacquer dishes generally are depicted
Ru, Guan, Jun, Guangdong and Yixing Wares in the Percival
with the ‘petals’ overlapping in S-shaped curves, but one
David Foundation of Chinese Art, rev. ed., London, 1999, p. 64
similar black lacquer dish is in the Nezu Institute of Fine Arts,
and back cover (fig. 4).
Tokyo, albeit with seven petals: see the Museum’s exhibition
Sō Gen no bi. Denrai no shikki to chūshin ni/The Colors and The present washer is superbly potted, crisply shaped and
Forms of Song and Yuan China. Featuring Lacquerwares, yet fluid in its outlines, the thick glaze thinning towards the
Ceramics, and Metalwares, Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo, rim, the surface inviting the finger to follow the curves. The
2004, cat. no. 19 (fig. 2). very glossy glaze has the most exquisite blue-green colour, a
gelatinous lustre and a pleasing, satiny texture. The simplicity
With its combination of seven rough spur marks and an
unglazed foot ring, on which it does not seem to have been of the shape and the absence of any decoration are severe
standing in the kiln, the present dish was probably produced on the craftsmen as they are not forgiving of any defects;
fairly early in the Southern Song, when different methods of but they serve to highlight the elegant web of the luminous
firing were tried out, as related washers and dishes generally crackle. The piece appears as if carved from a boulder of a
show either an unglazed foot, or a glazed foot and spur marks. lustrous jade-like stone. New official commissions of such
seemingly modest ceramics suggested cultured patronage
Only one close companion piece appears to have been rather than wasteful consumption and at the same time
published, a washer in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, conveyed evidence of a continuation of imperial taste and
of very similar shape and size, also with an unglazed foot style from the Northern to the Southern Song.

46 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比