Page 233 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings March 19 2019 Auction

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION
1736
AN UNUSUAL GLAZED WHITE STONEWARE
‘COCKSCOMB’ FLASK
LIAO DYNASTY, 10TH-11TH CENTURY
The fask is molded in imitation of leather prototypes with a cylindrical spout Stoneware and earthenware fasks of this type are based on the leather
and a ruyi-head-shaped fange pierced with a suspension hole, the edges water fasks used by the Khitan people of the Liao dynasty. The angular
outlined with applied strips of clay to simulate sewn gussets, and is covered shape of the present fask and its white stoneware body are quite unusual.
overall with a white slip and a transparent, ivory-tinged glaze stopping at the An almost identical fask of the exact same size, excavated from the tomb of
fat, unglazed base exposing the white body. a Liao Prince, is illustrated in Ryo no toji (Liao Dynasty Ceramics), Heihonsha,
Tokyo, 1960, p. 9, fg. 10.
9¿ in. (23.2 cm.) high, Japanese wood box
Another very similar fask is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, Song
$40,000-60,000
Ceramics from the Kwan Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1994, pp.
390-91, no. 177, where it is described as Gangwa ware, Chifeng. Other fasks
PROVENANCE comparable in workmanship to the present fask have been found in royal
Idemitsu Museum of Art, Tokyo. Liao tombs such as a tomb datable to AD 959 at Chifeng, Inner Mongolia,
Song: A Japanese Collection; Sotheby’s London, 11 May, 2011, lot 8. illustrated by Liu Tao, Song Liao Jin jinian ciqi (Dated Ceramics of the Song,
Liao and Jin Periods), Beijing, 2004, p. 68, fgs. 4-7, and col. pl. 25. The
EXHIBITED
distinctive shape of the fange of these fasks is considered to be reminiscent
So ji (Song Ceramics), Tokyo, Tobu Museum of Art, 6 March -13 April 1999;
of a cockscomb.
Osaka, The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, 25 April -13 June 1999; Haji, Hagi
Uragami Museum, 20 June - 15 August 1999. 遼十世紀 林東窯白釉皮囊壺
LITERATURE
Sōji : shinpin to yobareta yakimono (Song Ceramics), Tokyo, 1999, p. 154,
no. 114.
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