Small Ovoid Jar with Partridge-Feather Mottles
12th century
Description
This ovoid jar sports a lustrous black glaze enlivened with russet splashes. Of thinly potted form, the jar is surmounted by a short, upright neck with an unglazed rim around the wide mouth. (The unglazed lip indicates that the jar originally had a cover, now lost, which would have been fired in place.) The jar is covered inside and out with a lustrous, dark brown glaze that appears black in reflected light. Randomly applied splashes of matte russet-brown slip enliven the dark glaze, the splashes running downward and shading to iridescent green tones at the margins; since Song times, Chinese connoisseurs have termed the type of mottles that embellish this piece "partridge feather decoration." The well-controlled glaze ends in an even line well short of the high, lightly splayed foot, exposing the light gray stoneware body on the lower portion of the piece; the exposed body clay assumed a pale buff skin in firing.
Dimensions
H. 12.7 x Diam. 13.4 cm (5 x 5 1/4 in.)
Provenance
J.J. Lally & Co., New York (March-April 2009) Dr. and Mrs. Marvin L. Gordon Collection, San Francisco (1985-2009) Sotheby's, London, 10 December 1985, lot 149 (1985) Frederick Knight, London (1972-1985) Bluett & Sons, London (1972) Professor Postan and Lady Cynthia Postan, London (1940s-1972)
Related Artworks
View MoreJian ware: dark gray stoneware with dark brown glaze, the markings in iron oxide. From the kilns at Shuiji, Jianyang county, Fujian province.
12th-13th centuryChineseQingbai ware: porcelain with pale sky-blue glaze over carved and incised decoration
12th centuryChineseNanfeng ware: light gray stoneware with decoration reserved against the medium brown glaze, the rim and reserved designs with clear glaze over white slip. From the Baishe kilns in Nanfeng county, Jiangxi province
12th-13th centuryChineseJian ware: dark gray stoneware with dark brown glaze, the markings in iron oxide. From the Jian kilns at Jianyang, Fujian province.
12th-13th centuryChineseLongquan celadon ware: light gray stoneware with bluish green celadon glaze over applique decoration
12th-13th centuryChineseTransparent emerald-green glass with red lead pigment on the surface
8th-12th centuryChineseJun ware: light gray stoneware with robin's-egg blue glaze
12th-13th centuryChineseQingbai ware: porcelain with sky blue glaze over trailed ribs of porcelain slip
12th centuryChineseDing ware: porcellaneous stoneware with ivory-hued glaze over incised and carved decoration, the unglazed rim originally bound with metal. From the Ding kilns in Quyang county, Hebei province.
11th-12th centuryChineseHammered silver
12th-13th centuryChineseNorthern black ware of Cizhou type: off-white stoneware with dark brown glaze, the russet markings in overglaze iron oxide
11th-12th centuryChineseYaozhou ware: light gray stoneware with celadon glaze over carved, incised, and combed decoration. From the Yaozhou kilns near Tongchuan, Shaanxi province.
11th-12th centuryChinese