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

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Past Exhibition

Early Chinese Ceramics: An American Private Collection

March 28 - April 16, 2005

A MOULDED LONGQUAN CELADON DISH WITH QILIN
55.
A MOULDED LONGQUAN CELADON DISH WITH QILIN

Yuan Dynasty, A.D. mid 14th Century

of shallow circular form with bracket-lobed edge around the everted rim, finely moulded in the center with a vigorous qilin with scaly body, bushy tail, and flames rising from its flanks, shown with head turned back to look over its shoulder, encircled by a continuous meander of chrysanthemum blossoms and leafy stems around the well and with demi-florettes around the rim, the underside plain, the glossy translucent green glaze continuing over the wedge-shaped ring foot, the unglazed base burnt buff in the firing.

Diameter 7 inches (17.8 cm)

A longquan dish of this size and pattern from the Collection of Edward T. Chow is illustrated by Beurdeley in A Connoisseur’s Guide to Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1974, p. 159, col. pl. 47.

Compare also the two dishes of slightly smaller size from the Art Institute of Chicago included in the 1968 Yuan exhibition at the Cleveland Museum, illustrated by Lee and Ho in Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368), Cleveland, 1968, no. 68a, moulded with a deer supporting a magic vase and 68b, moulded with a xiniu gazing at a crescent moon.

Another example, also of smaller size, moulded with a xiniu in the center, in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, is illustrated by He Li in Chinese Ceramics: The New Standard Guide, London, 1996, p. 246, no. 509. The same dish from the Brundage Collection is illustrated by Medley in Yuan Porcelain and Stoneware, London, 1974, pl. 68B, and discussed on pp. 74–75 where the author suggests that these rare dishes should be dated slightly after the middle of the fourteenth century.

The qilin, sometimes called the Chinese unicorn, is a fabulous creature variously represented as a composite beast with a single horn or antlers, the head of a lion, the body of a deer, the scales of a dragon, a bushy tail and flames rising from its flanks. It is a beast of good omen, said to appear at auspicious times and regarded as a symbol or harbinger of longevity, grandeur, felicity, wise administration and illustrious offspring.

元  龍泉印花麒麟紋碗  徑 17.8 厘米

55.
A MOULDED LONGQUAN CELADON DISH WITH QILIN

Yuan Dynasty, A.D. mid 14th Century

Diameter 7 inches (17.8 cm)

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