Qingbai porcelain jar

A very thinly potted qingbai porcelain jar of deeply rounded bowl form with a sharply angled shoulder and a straight mouth that ends in a rolled rim.  The sides are decorated with a lightly combed, abstract spiral pattern.  The porcelain is covered inside and out in a transparent glaze of pale blue hue.  The slightly recessed base is unglazed and shows the fine-grained white porcelain body, which has black firing marks.

•   The porcelain body of this small jar is so thinly potted that the material becomes translucent when a strong light is shone through it.   Zhao and Liu illustrate a comparable jar, which they identify as having been produced at the Chai kiln.1  According to the authors, the best Qingbai wares of the Song dynasty are considered those that came from the Hutian kiln near Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, and the best wares produced at Hutian are known as Chai wares. A distinct bluish-white glaze distinguishes these Chai wares.  A jar of so-called ‘rice measure’ form, decorated with a similar spiral pattern, is in the Barlow Collection at the University of Sussex.2  Sullivan has suggested that this type of abstract spiral pattern is meant to give a semblance of basket weaving.3

1. Zhao Ziqiang (ed.): Chai Yao Yu Hutian Yao (Chai Kiln and Hutian Kiln). Nanning, 2004, p. 68
2. Pierson, S. (ed.) Qingbai Ware: Chinese Porcelain of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Percival David Collection of Chinese Art, London 2002, no. 93, pp. 174 - 5
3. Sullivan, M. Chinese Ceramics, Bronzes and Jades in the Collection of Sir Alan and Lady Barlow, London 1963, page 113