YUEYAO OVAL STEMMED BOWL

Song dynasty, 10th or 11th Century

Diameter: 4 1/2 inches, 11.5 cm

Height: 2. inches, 5.8 cm

越窑海棠杯

A finely potted stem bowl of oval outline, supported on a high, tapered foot. The bowl is completely undecorated and covered inside and out in an evenly applied, sea-green glaze of Yueyao type.

 

Yue wares, a term that covers most early celadon wares, developed slowly over a period of about one thousand years, from the Han dynasty (206BC – 220AD) to the early Song dynasty. The central yue kiln sites are in the Shanglinhu region in Zhejiang province.[1] Yue wares produced during the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song dynasty have many characteristics in common with their predecessors, such as the greyish body and the production methods. An oval fluted Yue stem bowl is in the Meiyintang collection.[2]   Commenting on this bowl, Krahl remarks that “…oval bowls are known from Sassanian and Sogdian metalwork and were copied in Tang silver.”[3]

PROVENANCE:

Priestley & Ferraro, no. 1031, London

  1. Gompertz, G.ST.G.M., Chinese Celadon Wares, Faber and Faber, London, 1980, pp. 34-5
  2. Krahl, R, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Volume Three (II) London 2006, no. 1403, p. 405
  3. Krahl, R, op cit. p. 405