J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
MenuPast Exhibition
Chinese Ceramics in Black and White
March 20–April 10, 2010
20.
A CARVED TWO-COLOR DINGYAO PORCELAIN
‘DUCKS AND LOTUS’ PILLOW
Song Dynasty (A.D. 960–1279)
of bean shape, decorated in pale olive-brown with a pair of ducks swimming in a lotus pond on the wide sloping concave top, with a large full-blown lotus blossom rising on a leafy stem at the center, flanked by a lily pad, a seed pod and trefoil leaves, all within a wide line border, the design freely carved through the brown slip to the white porcelain ground, with combed and incised linear details throughout, the tall sides decorated in the same technique with a continuous frieze of foliate scroll motif, all covered with a transparent glossy glaze, the flat base left unglazed showing the fine white porcelain body, with two small apertures at the base to allow gases to escape during firing.
Width 103⁄4 inches (27.3 cm)
A similar bean-shaped two-color Dingyao pillow with carved lotus design in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Gugong bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin quanji (32) Liang Song ciqi, shang (The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Vol. 32, Porcelain of the Song Dynasty, I), Hong Kong, 1996, pp. 98–99, no. 89.
A rectangular two-color Dingyao pillow carved with a single duck swimming in a lotus pond, from the Yeung Wing Tak collection, now in the Guangdong Provincial Museum, is illustrated in the catalogue Chinese Ceramic Pillows from the Yeung Wing Tak Collection, Osaka, 1984, p. 35, no. 7, together with a bean-shaped two-color Dingyao pillow carved with peony scroll on p. 34, no. 6.
Another smaller two-color Dingyao pillow of bean shape carved with peony and floral scroll motifs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art is illustrated by Gray in Sung Porcelain and Stoneware, London, 1984, p. 72, no. 52.
Compare also the two-color Dingyao jar carved with ducks, deer and scrolling lotus excavated in Hebei province and now in the collection of the Zhending County Office of Cultural Relics, illustrated in Dingci yishu (The Art of Ding Porcelain), Shijiazhuang, Hebei, 2002, p.153, nos. 203-1 and 203-2.
宋 定窰白瓷刻花枕 寬 27.3 厘米
