Page 145 - J.J. Lally Chinese Art CHRISTIE'S March 23 2023 NYC

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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