Page 151 - Christie's Chinese Works of Art March 24 and 25th, 2022 NYC

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION
1027
A RARE CARVED YAOZHOU CELADON BOWL
NORTHERN SONG-JIN DYNASTY (AD 960-1234)
The bowl with deep, rounded sides are carved on the interior with a xiniu
(rhinoceros) gazing up at the moon, and is covered overall with a soft olive-
green glaze.
8º in. (21 cm.) diam., cloth box
$20,000-30,000
PROVENANCE:
The J. M. Hu (1911-1995), Zande Lou Collection.
LITERATURE:
Helen D. Ling and Edward T. Chow, Collection of Chinese Ceramics from the
Pavilion of Ephemeral Attainment, vol. I, Hong Kong, 1950, no. 23.

The iconography of a rhinoceros gazing at the moon is discussed at length by
Jan Wirgin in Sung Ceramic Designs, Stockholm, 1970, pp.196-198. This motif
goes back to an old legend that the peculiar structure within the rhinoceros’
horn is formed when it looks at the moon. The rhinoceros was perceived as a
mythical beast in ancient China and it was believed that the rhinoceros was
capable of communicating with the sky through its crescent-shaped horn.

A Yaozhou bowl in the Palace Museum, Beijing, carved with a similar scene
of a rhinoceros gazing at the moon, is illustrated in Gugong Bowuyuan
Cang Wenwu Zhenpin Quanji, Liang Song Ciqi, I (The Complete Collection
of the Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelain of the Song Dynasty, I),
Hong Kong, 1996, vol. 32, p. 147, no. 133. Another Yaozhou bowl carved with
this design and of nearly identical size was sold at Christie’s New York, 2
December 1986, lot 114. This bowl was later exhibited and illustrated by J. J.
Lally in The Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Marvin L. Gordon: Chinese Ceramics
and Works of Art, 2009, no. 6.
(labael on box)

重要私人珍藏
北宋/金 耀州窯青釉「 犀牛望月」盌
來源:
暫得樓胡惠春(1911-1995) 珍藏
出版:
Helen D. Ling及仇焱之, 《暫得樓珍藏歷代名瓷影譜》, 卷一, 香港, 1950年, 編號
23

The present bowl illustrated by H. D. Ling and E. T. Chow in Collection of Chinese Ceramics from the Pavilion of Ephemeral Attainment, vol. I, Hong Kong, 1950, no. 23.
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