Page 144 - J.J. Lally Chinese Art CHRISTIE'S March 23 2023 NYC
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876 A VERY RARE BROWN-SPLASHED                             北宋ǭ青白釉մ՞ज़笙執壺
               QINGBAI ‘SHENG PLAYER’ EWER
               NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY (AD 960-1127)                  Ϝ源
                                                                    藍理捷
 紐約
 編號
               The domed vessel is molded and carved as a female musician
               shown dressed in a long blouse over a pleated skirt with the
               slippers emerging from beneath the hem at front, and with the
               hair elaborately dressed with flowers and topped by a six-petaled
               headdress. The top of the head is left open to serve as the mouth
               of the vessel, and the figure holds a hollowed sheng that serves as
               the spout opposite the double-strap handle. The vessel is covered
               overall with a brown-splashed, greenish-tinged glaze and has five
               wide spur marks on the foot rim.
               7æ in. (19.7 cm.) high, cloth box
               $150,000-200,000

               PROVENANCE:
               J. J. Lally & Co., New York, no. 4621.





                                                                    A very similar figural ewer in the collection of the Cleveland
                                                                    Museum of Art, formerly in the collection of Samuel T. Peters,
                                                                    was exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum and published
                                                                    in the exhibition catalogue by H. Trubner in The Arts of the Tang
                                                                    Dynasty, Los Angeles, 1957, pp. 102-103, no. 271. The same ewer is
                                                                    illustrated by W. Watson, Tang and Liao Ceramics, London, 1984,
                                                                    p. 121, pl. 92.
                                                                    Another figural ewer excavated in Anhui province in 1994 from
                                                                    a tomb dated to AD 1025 in Susong county, near Anqing, is
                                                                    illustrated by Zhang (ed.) in Complete Collection of Ceramic Art
                                                                    Unearthed in China, vol. 8, Anhui, Beijing, 2008, no. 98. This ewer
                                                                    is of similar size to that of the current ewer and also has details
                                                                    highlighted in iron brown. The form of this Susong ewer depicts
                                                                    a Daoist immortal playing a reed pipe, and the hair is tied up in
                                                                    a simple cloth. A qingbai figural ewer, without such an elaborate
                                                                    headdress, from the Collection of Robert H. Ellsworth was sold at
                                                                    Christie's New York, 20 March 2015, lot 837. (Fig. 1)

                                                                    A similarly modeled porcelain figural ewer covered in a plain
                                                                    white glaze, dated Northern Song and excavated in 1971 at
                                                                    Tengyun village, Huaining county, Anqing city, Anhui province,
                                                                    is illustrated by Zhang (ed.), ibid., p. 150, no. 150.
                                                                    The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test
                                                                    no. P110r22 is consistent with the dating of this lot.


               Fig. 1 A rare Qingbai iron-brown-decorated figural ewer, Northern Song
               dynasty (AD 960-1127), sold at Christie’s New York, 19 March 2015, lot 837.





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