Page 24 - Important Chinese Art, Sotheby's London May 15 2019

A FLAMBOYANT JUN VESSEL

REGINA KRAHL

This flamboyant shape, which combines concave, convex and from ancient Chinese kiln sites in the collection of the Palace
conical outlines and terminates in a dramatic opening, is one Museum], vol. 1: Henan juan [Henan volume], Beijing, 2005,
of the most complex and memorable forms created by the and vol. 2: Hebei juan [Hebei volume], Beijing, 2006). While
Jun kilns prior to the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). The almost many of these kilns, however, were following the Jun tradition
geometric construction of this shape is untypical of a potter’s only later, often not before the Yuan dynasty, Yuxian, where
repertoire, yet not obviously following a metal prototype a large number of individual kilns were discovered, can be
either. It would have represented a challenge for a craftsman considered as the type site of Jun ware. It developed the
working on the potters’ wheel, but clearly was highly admired archetypal Jun stonewares, which connoisseurs included
at the time, since many different kilns of north China adopted among the Five Great Wares of the Song (960-1279). A frag-
it. ment of a very similarly formed mouth of a vase, discovered
at Liujiamen, one of the Yuxian Jun kilnsites, is illustrated
It is an ideal shape to emphasize the attraction of the thick,
opaque Jun glaze, which works best on surfaces with clean op.cit., vol. 1, pl. 415.
lines, and its tendency to drain to a contrasting transparent Preserved Jun vases of this distinctive, well proportioned
olive tone is here effectively shown off at the rim. Jun ware form, are extremely rare and the only closely related example
examples of this finely executed, early type are extremely that appears to have been published is a piece from the
rare, but this striking form of the garlanded mouth, with its collection of Simon Kwan, included in the Min Chiu Society
five downward-folded lappets and lobed ridges terminating Thirtieth Anniversary Exhibition, Selected Treasures of Chi-
in sharp points, continued to be employed by the Jun and nese Art, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1990, cat.
th
other kilns well into the Yuan dynasty. Vases of this type then no. 101, and sold in these rooms, 12 November 2003, lot 50.
often had added handles, an attached stand and sometimes The form was popular at many other kilns nearby, mostly
applied and splashed purple designs, such as the famous in Henan and Hebei provinces: a much smaller Ding vase
large Jun altar vase excavated from a Yuan site in Beijing, of related form, in the Dingzhou City Museum of Hebei
illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji [Complete series on Province, and a sancai-glazed vase of very similar form
Chinese ceramics], Shanghai, 1999-2000, vol. 10, pl. 205. and size in the Capital Museum, Beijing, are illustrated, for
The present vase might also have served as an altar vessel, example, in Zhongguo taoci quanji, op.cit., vol. 9, pls 159 and
although the down-curved lobes at its rim would also have 227. A monumental painted ‘Cizhou’ vase of this form in the
made it a fine utilitarian vessel for pouring liquids.
Seattle Art Museum, another sancai example in the Idemitsu
Many types of flower-shaped rims of lobed, barbed and wavy Museum of Arts, Tokyo, and a black-glazed vase of similar
outline that appear on Song ceramics can be traced to con- form with white ribs of slip across the body, are published
temporary silver shapes, but the present form is not typical in Mikami Tsugio, ed., Sekai tōji zenshū/Ceramic Art of the
of silver or other metal wares and may rather have originated World, vol. 13: Ryō, Kin, Gen/Liao, Chin and Yüan Dynasties,
from forming the soft clay. It may represent an exaggerated Tokyo, 1981, col. pls 92, 276 and 283. The Seattle vase is
form of the more undulating, less sharply defined lotus-leaf illustrated again, together with several other black-and-white
mouth popular with Song ceramics that imitates the wavy, painted and green- or yellow-glazed Cizhou versions in Mino
curling edges characteristic of large lotus leaves. One metal Yutaka, Freedom of Clay and Brush through Seven Centuries
example, a vase of beaten, gilded copper has, however, been in Northern China. Tz’u-chou Type Wares, 960 - 1600 AD, In-
published in a line drawing in Bo Gyllensvärd, ‘T’ang Gold and dianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, 1980, pls 77, 78 and
Silver’, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 96 and figs 206-9 and 279. An unglazed vase of this form,
29, Stockholm, 1957, fig. 38d. At present, it is difficult to de- painted with a marble pattern in white slip, from the Eugene
termine where this type of rim might have derived from, but Bernat collection and included in the Loan Exhibition, Boston
an intriguing illustration of a flower-filled bowl with a related Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1947, no. 42, was sold in our
th
garlanded rim is engraved on a horse-mounting stone at the New York rooms, 7 November 1980, lot 129.
mausoleum of the second Song Emperor, Renzong (r. 1023- At other kilns, such as Yaozhou in Shaanxi province or
1063), see Bei Song huang ling/The Imperial Tombs of the Jingdezhen in Jiangxi, vases with related mouth have a balus-
Northern Song Dynasty, Zhongzhou, 1997, p. 171, fig. 150: 1.
ter-shaped body with more continuous outlines, see Songdai
Jun ware was made by many different kilns in Henan – e.g. Yaozhou yaozhi/The Yaozhou Kiln Site of the Song Period,
Hebi, Anyang, Qixian, Jiaxian, Xin’an, Bacun, Yuxian and Beijing, 1998, p. 292, fig. 148: 3 and 4; p. 294, fig. 149, col. pl.
Linru – and even Hebei – Cizhou and Longhua (see Gugong 8, fig. 3, pl. 77, fig. 6, pl. 78, figs 1 and 2; and Hasebe Gakuji,
Bowuyuan cang Zhongguo gudai yaozhi biaoben [Specimens ed., Sekai tōji zenshū/Ceramic Art of the World, volume 12:
Sō/Sung Dynasty, Tokyo, 1977, col. pl. 32.

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