Page 179 - Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art II

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION

2326
A RARE PAINTED JIZHOU MEIPING
SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY (1127-1279)

The meiping is covered overall with a
somewhat mottled, dark brown glaze and
painted in a golden-buff tone with two
large quatrefoil motifs formed by ruyi scrolls
centered by a fower, and separated by
two fve-petaled fowers positioned at the
shoulder and on the lower body, all below
a band of key fret on the neck and a band of
dots on the lipped rim.
8º in. (21 cm.) high

$30,000-40,000

PROVENANCE:

Sotheby’s New York, 18 September 2007,
lot 235.

The golden quality of the decoration painted on
this meiping is a fne example of the technique
employed at the Jizhou kilns where a pale
design was painted on top of the dark unfred
glaze. When the piece was fred, and the glaze
fowed slightly, the designs were rendered in
softer focus, and the patterns, which were often
akin to those seen on carved lacquers of the
period, provided a pleasing richness of surface
decoration.

Painted decoration of this type on Jizhou wares
is more usually found on bowls, such as the
example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
illustrated by S. Valenstein in A Handbook of
Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989 ed., p.
117, no. 113, and another illustrated by R. L.
Hobson in The George Eumorfopoulos Collection
Catalogue, vol. 6, London, 1928, pl. XV, no.
F77. However, a similarly decorated Jizhou
meiping from the Yiqingge Collection of Chinese
Ceramics was sold at Christie’s Hong, 29 May
2013, lot 2001. Another meiping decorated
with star-shaped fowers, in the Jiangxi
Provincial Museum, is illustrated in Zhongguo
Taoci Quanji, vol. 15, Shanghai, 1986, pl. 66,
and one decorated with a design of scattered
prunus blossoms, in the St. Louis Art Museum,
is illustrated by M. Medley, The Chinese Potter,
London, 1976, fg. 122.

南宋 吉州窯剪紙貼花四葉如意紋梅瓶

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