Page 102 - Important Chinese Art, Sotheby's London May 15 2019

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A RUSSET-SPLASHED BLACK-GLAZED MEIPING
NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY
the broad-shouldered tapering baluster body rising from
a short spreading foot to a narrow flaring neck with rolled
rim, the body and neck covered with a lustrous black glaze
irregularly splashed in reddish-brown, the glaze falling short
of the foot to reveal the buff body
23 cm, 9⅛ in.
‡ £ 80,000-120,000
HK$ 825,000-1,240,000 US$ 105,000-158,000
北宋 黑釉鐵銹花梅瓶

This vase is striking for its vibrant and translucent black glaze
which stops above the foot, revealing the cream-coloured
body. Russet splashes were spontaneously applied through-
out the vessel, creating a dramatic contrast with the brilliant
black ground. Black-glazed wares decorated with russet
splashes were appreciated for their serendipitous nature,
which must have appealed to the Song literati.
Compared to other famous wares of the Song dynasty,
black-glazed ware represents a more adventurous type of
early ceramic production. The russet-coloured splashes are
thought to have evolved from experiments carried out by
competing Song dynasty kilns, which produced black and
brown-glazed wares for the thriving tea market. The iron-rich
glazes of black wares began to be made in large numbers in
the Tang dynasty (618-907), and by the Song period wares
decorated with splashed and painted design, or with raised
parallel lines of white slip emerged. Black-glazed wares with
irregular russet splashes were made at numerous kilns in
Northern China from the 11th century onwards, most notably
in the provinces of Henan, Hebei and Shandong.
A russet-splashed vase of similar form, but modelled with a
straight foot, in the British Museum, London, is illustrated
in British Museum Guide to Pottery and Porcelain of the Far
East, London, 1924, pl. 32; one featuring smaller splashes
around the shoulders, in the Cleveland Museum of Art, is
illustrated in Howard C. Hollis, ‘Pottery of the Sung Dynasty’,
Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 28 (October
1941), p. 131; and another is published in Fujiō Kōyama, Tōji
taikei: Temmoku [Outlines of ceramics: Temmoku], vol. 38,
Tokyo, 1974, fig. 55. Further related examples were sold at
auction; a vase from the collection of Winifred Gray Whitman
was sold in our New York rooms, 30th May 1973, lot 318; a
slightly smaller vase from the collection of Warren E. Cox was
sold in these rooms, 12th December 1977, lot 13; and another
from the collection of William Stephen Serri was sold at
Christie’s New York, 20th November 1979, lot 148. See also
a larger vase of this type but of a more elongated form, in the
Art Institute of Chicago, included in the exhibition Hare’s Fur,
Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers, Harvard University Art
Museums, Cambridge, 1995, cat. no. 35.

100 Buyers are liable to pay both the hammer price (as estimated above) and the buyer’s premium together with any applicable taxes and Artist’s Resale Right (which will depend on the individual circumstanc-
es). Refer to the Buying at Auction and VAT sections at the back of this catalogue for further information.