Page 80 - Sothebys Important Chinese Art London May 2018

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A ‘YUE’ CELADON!GLAZED RAM Compare two similar rams in the Palace Museum, Beijing,
WESTERN JIN DYNASTY illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures in the
Palace Museum. Porcelain of the Jin and Tang Dynasties, Hong
the recumbent animal with its legs tucked under its body,
Kong, 1996, pls 30 and 31; one in The Tsui Museum of Art,
its head slightly raised and its wide bulging eyes in an alert Hong Kong, published in The Tsui Museum of Art. Chinese
expression, the horns and fur to the face and between the
Ceramics I. Neolithic to Liao., Hong Kong, 1991, pl. 58; another
fore and hind legs picked out with incised lines, covered in
from the collection of Sir Alan and Lady Barlow and now
a celadon crackled glaze, pooling to a darker tone at the
preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, illustrated in
recessed areas Michael Sullivan, Chinese Ceramics, Bronzes and Jades in the
18 cm, 7⅛ in.
collection of Sir Alan and Lady Barlow, London, 1963, pl. 71a; a
similar ram illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji/The Complete
PROVENANCE
Works of Chinese Ceramics, vol. 4, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 163,
Acquired in Hong Kong, December 1994.
together with an example without incised lines on the body,
excavated from Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, pl. 164; and three
Modelled as a recumbent ram resting upon its tucked-in hind
additional examples, included in the exhibition Animal Farm in
legs and kneeling forelegs, this charming piece belongs to a
group of playful vessels made for the scholar’s desk that were Yue Ware, Uragami Sōkyu-dō, Tokyo, 1992, cat. nos 1 to 3.
produced in kilns in northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu ಴ £ 30,000-40,000
province. Vessels of this form have been unearthed from HK$ 332,000-442,000 US$ 42,300-56,500
Three Kingdoms (220-265) and Jin (265-420) dynasty tombs,
suggesting that they were highly treasured by their owners.
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78 SOTHEBY’S