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A LARGE ‘CIZHOU’ SGRAFFIATO ‘PEONY’ This jar belongs to a well-known type of Cizhou ware, but the
VASE large uidly rendered ower-scrolls are particularly elaborate
SONG/JIN PERIOD and pleasantly laid out on the vessel surface. The jar is also
unusually elegant in outline compared to the more commonly
the globular body rising from a tapering recessed base to found globular shapes. The sgra ato technique used to
a short broad neck with everted rim, covered overall with a decorate this jar, in which the design is carved through two
thick lustrous dark chocolate-brown glaze, superbly carved di erent types of slip, one black and one white, helped achieve
through to the bu ground with a broad band of meandering a spectacular contrasting e ect in the design. Although several
leafy blossoming peony, all between line borders and a band jars of similar form and design are known, they are quite
of overlapping sti leaves at the base and a leafy scroll band at individual in style, apparently produced one by one and not in
the shoulder, the footring unglazed a series, and can di er considerably both in their proportions
29.3 cm, 11½ in. and in the rendering of the scroll and enclosing borders. This
jar is also unusual for its glazed rim. Jars of this type are
PROVENANCE generally left with an unglazed rim as a cover would have
Sotheby’s London, 8th November 2006, lot 61. concealed the rim.
£ 20,000-30,000 See a related Cizhou jar from the Scheinman collection,
included in the exhibition Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and
HK$ 193,000-290,000 US$ 24,900-37,300 Partridge Feathers, Harvard University Art Museums,
Cambridge, Mass., 1995, cat. no. 69; and another jar of this
type, from the Malcolm collection exhibited at the Burlington
Fine Arts Club, London, in the winter of 1936-37, sold in these
rooms, 29th March 1977, lot 149.
2006 11 8 61
IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 95
