J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York

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Past Exhibition

Chinese Ceramics in Black and White

March 20–April 10, 2010

11.
AN EARLY DINGYAO WHITE PORCELAIN EWER

Late Tang Dynasty, A.D. 10th Century

of well potted slender ovoid form, with high rounded shoulders surmounted by a short cylindrical neck rising to a wide trumpet mouth, applied with a tied triple-stranded strap handle at one side and with a short tapered spout rising at a sharp angle from the shoulder opposite the handle, standing on a neatly finished wide ring foot with splayed sides and chamfered edge, covered all over with a translucent glaze of very pale bluish tone ending short of the base revealing the fine white porcelain body.

Height 918 inches (23.2 cm)

A very similar ewer of slightly smaller size excavated in Hebei province at Xucheng, Quyang county, the site of the Dingyao kilns, and now in the collection of the Hebei Cultural Relics Research Institute, is illustrated in Dingci yishu (The Art of Ding Porcelain), Shijiazhuang, Hebei, 2002, p. 47, fig. 54.

Another white porcelain ewer of very similar form and slightly smaller size, formerly in the collection of Carl Kempe, Ekolsund, Sweden, is illustrated by Gyllensvärd in Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1964, pp. 100–101, no. 286. The same ewer was exhibited in Venice and illustrated in the catalogue Mostra d’Arte Cinese (Exhibition of Chinese Art), Palazzo Ducale, Venice, 1954, no. 364.

Compare also the very similar white porcelain ewer in Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum: Chinese Ceramics, Vol. I, Tokyo, 1988, p. 81, no. 315, attributed to Tang/Five Dynasties, 9th–10th century.

Other early white porcelain ewers of closely related form and type, variously described as Xingyao or Dingyao, have been previously published. A very similar example, formerly in the Alexander collection, is illustrated by Gustaf Lindberg in “Hsing-yao and Ting-yao,” B.M.F.E.A., Bulletin no. 25, Stockholm, 1953, pl. 41. Compare also the white glazed ewer of related form, published by Mino in Pre-Sung Dynasty Chinese Stonewares in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1974, pl. 66.

晚唐    定窰白瓷執壺    高 23.2 厘米