Page 196 - Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art II

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE ASIAN COLLECTOR Covered dragon jars were popular during the Southern Song period and
2341 have been excavated from Song tombs in southern China. The conventional
A LONGQUAN CELADON ‘DRAGON’ JAR AND COVER wisdom holds that such jars were made in pairs, one with a dragon coiled
SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY (1127-1279) around the shoulder and known as a panlong ping, or ‘coiled-dragon jar’,
and the other with a tiger around the shoulder and known as a panhu
The body is carved with upright petals below a scrolling band on ping, or ‘coiled-tiger jar’. Likely flled with grains, other foods, or aromatic
the rounded shoulder which is applied with a dragon and a bird that oils, their contents offered sustenance to the spirit of the deceased and
encircle the neck below the rim. The cover is surmounted by a eased its passage to the next life.
bird-form fnial. Both are covered with an unctuous glaze of soft
sea-green color that thins on the raised areas, and also covers the The dragon-and-tiger imagery refects Daoist directional symbolism, in
inside of the foot. which a green dragon represents the east, a red phoenix the south, a
10Ω in. (26.7 cm.) high, box white tiger the west, and a black intertwined snake and tortoise the north.
According to the principles of fengshui, or Chinese geomancy, tombs
$150,000-200,000 traditionally were constructed with their entrances facing south, their
backs to the north. With north and south thus clearly indicated by the
PROVENANCE: tomb’s architectural orientation, the east and west walls were symbolically
designated by the appropriate placement of the dragon-emblazoned and
T. T. Tsui (1941-2010) Collection, Hong Kong. tiger-embellished jars. Imbued with less elevated symbolism, the cover’s
Sotheby’s London, 19 June 2002, lot 36. fnial typically represents a bird in fight, as on the present example, or a
recumbent dog or tiger.
LITERATURE:
Suzanne G. Valenstein’s characterization of Southern Song Longquan
The Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1991, no. 45. celadon ware and the related jar in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
(34.113.4) perfectly summarizes this handsome example: “Decoration
on Southern Song Longquan wares is always underplayed: perhaps a
few lotus petals carved on the outside of a bowl or dish or, at most a
plastic decorative element that is totally appropriate to the piece. This is
exemplifed here by the beautifully articulated dragon that winds around
the shoulder of the jar.” (Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese
Ceramics, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989, text on p. 100,
dragon jar illustrated on p. 105, no. 99.)

A very similar jar, formerly in the collection of Lord Cunliffe, is published
in J.J. Lally & Co., Chinese Ceramics A.D. 400–1400: Selections from an
American Collection, March 19 - 31, 2007, New York, 2007, no. 19. A pair
of jars in the Percival David Foundation Collection, now displayed in the
British Museum, is published by Margaret Medley in Illustrated Catalogue
of Celadon Wares, London: Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art,
School of Oriental and African Studies, 1977, pl. IV, no. 36. An example
excavated at Longquan and now in the Wenzhou Museum is published in
Zhu Boqian, ed., Longquan Yao Qing Ci / Celadons from Longquan Kilns,
Taipei, 1998, pl. 105. Another similar jar in the Asian Art Museum, San
Francisco, (B62P147.a-.b) is illustrated in He Li, Chinese Ceramics: A New
Comprehensive Survey from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, New
York, 1996, no. 281. A slightly smaller example is pictured in Illustrated
Catalogue of Tokyo National Museum: Chinese Ceramics, vol. 1, Tokyo,
1988, no. 509. The somewhat simpler dragon jar in the Eli Lilly Collection
and now in the Indianapolis Museum of Art (47.141) is published in Yutaka
Mino and James Robinson, Beauty and Tranquility: The Eli Lilly Collection of
Chinese Art, Indianapolis, 1983, pl. 78.

Robert D. Mowry,
Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art Emeritus, Harvard Art Museums,
and Senior Consultant, Christie’s

南宋 龍泉窯青釉堆塑蟠龍蓋瓶

(another view)

194