Page 20 - Chinese Ceramics the Linyushanren Collection Part 1 , Christie's

Lot 2829 the introduction of moulded decoration at the Ding kilns, the decorative style changed
A Qingbai Melon-Form Ewer - becoming much denser, more formal, and more complex. The design of a peacock
in flight amongst blossoming peonies is beautifully conceived, while the low relief of
Lot 2830 the moulding is exceptionally crisp and finely detailed. As early as the Han dynasty
A Carved Qingbai Meiping peacocks are found in Chinese literature, such as the well-known yuefu entitled ‘A
Pair of Peacocks Fly Southeast’, which tells of the unwavering devotion between a
couple torn apart by their families. By the Tang dynasty peacocks were well known
in China, and indeed some districts paid tribute in peacocks, their feathers being
used both for imperial decoration, and for the designation of official rank. In the
Tang dynasty, peacock feathers were apparently bestowed on both civil and military
officials as marks of imperial favour, rewarding faithful service. Peacock feathers
are also associated with a number of Buddhist deities, but peacocks are particularly
associated with the Bodhisattva Avolokiteśvara (Guanyin). One of the stories relating
to the Chinese Guanyin in female form tells of her summoning a large bird with dull
plumage, sweeping her hands across her own face and then over the feathers of the
bird. The bird was suffused with brilliant lights and colours, to the extent that other
creatures had to look away. When they looked back they saw that each of the bird’s
100 tail feathers contained an eye. Guanyin explained this by saying that, as she was
unable to be omnipresent in watching over them, the eyes in the peacock’s tail would
keep watch for her and remind them of her constant care.

Lot 2829 Song dynasty high-fired white wares made at southern Chinese kilns are also well-
represented in the Linyushanren Collection. The finest of these were the 青白 qingbai
porcelains with fine white translucent body and blue-tinged transparent glaze from
the kilns at Jingdezhen. These had a pure white, high silica, body covered with
the transparent, icy blue-tinged glaze from which qingbai takes its name. Qingbai
means ‘blue white’, while the other name by which these porcelains are commonly
known, 影 青 yingqing, means ‘shadow blue’. The colour relied on the reduction of
a very small percentage of iron in the glaze, combined with minimum impurities in
body and glaze material, and careful control of the firing conditions. In his treatise
陶 記 Tao ji (Ceramic Records), the distinguished Southern Song (AD 1127-1279)
ceramic historian 蔣祈 Jiang Qi described this pure white porcelain and noted that it
was popular over a wide area, and that, even outside the kiln area, it was known as
饒玉 Raoyu ‘jade of Rao’ - 饒州 Raozhou being the name of the region in which the
Jingdezhen kilns were located. Recent archaeological and textual research carried
out by Chinese scholars strongly suggests that Jingdezhen qingbai porcelains may
have been used by both the Northern and the Southern Song courts, although the
kilns themselves were not, at that time, controlled by the court.3

Amongst the fine qingbai-glazed porcelains from the Linyushanren Collection in
the current sale is a lobed ewer (Lot 2829), which has a slender, out-turned, spout
with horizontally-cut tip that would have allowed precise control of the flow of
whichever liquid it was intended to hold. The admiration for ewers of this type
can be seen in the case of a similar ewer, also in the Linyushanren Collection,
which was registered in Japan as an Important Cultural Object in June 1971, has
been included in numerous exhibitions, and has been the subject of academic
literature since at least 1943.4 This latter ewer has finely incised decoration
on the upper half of its lobed body. Like the earlier Ding ware decoration,
this is very subtle. An elegant qingbai-glazed meiping vase in the current sale
(Lot 2830) has somewhat more distinct decoration which has been rather more
deeply carved into the body of the vessel and the blue-tinged glaze has flowed into

Lot 2830

The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics 古韻天成 — 臨宇山人珍藏（一） 18