Page 55 - Chinese and Asian Ceramics from an Indonesian Collection

Ceramics from the Musi River

Figure 26. Ewer, height 9.5`cm, Tang Dynasty, Guangdong
Province, C9–C10, from the Musi River, Pusri site.
Catalogue No. K1300.

described a similar glaze as a ‘Jun type’, which was
produced in Henan Province in the Tang to early-Song
Dynasty, possibly at the Lushan kilns.
At the end of the Tang Dynasty and beginning
of the Five Dynasties the quality of Changsha wares
declined and production for export had ceased by the
mid-10th century.

Xing and Ding wares
The Xing kilns of Hebei Province produced fine quality
wares for the export trade (Krahl et al. 2010). However,
Qin & Xiang (2011) report that some of the white ware
was made at both the Xing kilns and early-Ding Ware
kilns in today’s Hebei Province, but most were from
the Huangye and Baihe kilns in today’s Gongyi City
in Henan Province. The most famous Xing ware was
the beautiful porcellaneous white glazed bowls, plates
and storage jars. Koh (2010a) illustrates a number
of such bi-disc base white plates collected from the
Musi. They were clearly a common trade product to
Palembang and on one occasion we were shown some
30 such plates (K782, K786, K1186, K1479) from one
small location from the western branch of the Musi
near Pulau Dusun Salanamo. The person with these
plates suggested that they were collected from the Musi
among submerged timber and were probably part of
the cargo of a small skiff that sank while transporting
ceramics to shore from an Arab Dhow. Other Ding
Figure 25. Figurine, court lady clutching handbag, mineral ware from the Musi included a miniature ewer (Figure
organic paint degraded. H: 29. perhaps Mid-Tang
Dynasty but may be a more recent copy, C8–C19, 23) and a taller ewer (Figure 24).
from the Musi River, Pusri site. Catalogue No. K1970.
Painted figurine
A Tang Dynasty figurine of a standing court lady was
small ewers (Figure 22), a mortar (K1820), a plate found in the Musi (Figure 25). She was 29 cm high;
(K1871), water bowl (K2490), jarlet (K1643) and two with long loose fitting dress with elaborate coiffure
figurines of an entwined squatting naked man and with hair piled more on the left side and clutching a
woman (K1581). Also collected were two large bowls small ‘purse’. These were a common funerary object
(diameters 28.8 cm & 41.6 cm) which had bluish grey or mingqi to be placed in a tomb. It was made from
glaze with white splashes (K2120, K2702). Koh (2016e) low fired clay moulded and decorated with green,

38