J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
MenuPast Exhibition
Chinese Porcelain and Silver in the Song Dynasty
March 18 - April 8, 2002
8.
A DINGYAO WHITE PORCELAIN RIBBED
CYLINDRICAL BOX AND COVER
Northern Song Dynasty, A.D. 10th Century
decorated with seven grooved horizontal ribs separated by wide shallow concave bands evenly spaced along the tall straight sides, the cover well fitted to the moulded lip of the box and with raised edges flanked by concave bands, the top of the cover rising to a shallow dome and lightly incised with line borders, the sides of the box sharply angled at the base and raised on a wide ring foot with unglazed edge showing the white porcelain body, the transparent glaze of very pale yellowish tint, evenly applied on the interior and exterior except for a neatly pared flange inset at the mouth rim and a corresponding shallow indented lip on the underside of the cover, both left unglazed, the flat base incised through the glaze before firing with the character guan.
Height 6 1⁄4 inches (15.9 cm)
A smaller white porcelain box and cover of this same distinctive form but without the engraved guan character on the base which was discovered in 1969 at Dingzhou City, Hebei Province in a hoard of precious objects and relics in an underground repository (digong) beneath a Northern Song pagoda at the site of the Jingzhongyuan Temple (built A.D. 995), has been widely published and exhibited as an example of early Northern Song porcelain produced at the famous Ding kilns. The box discovered in Dingzhou City is illustrated in the catalogue of the Idemitsu Museum exhibition entitled Treasures from the Underground Palaces- Excavated Treasures from Northern Song Pagodas, Dingzhou, Hebei Province, China, Tokyo, 1997, no. 93, with full description on p. 140, together with several other white porcelains found in the same hoard and another group of porcelains including some with engraved guan marks discovered beneath another pagoda nearby at the site of the Jingzhi temple (built in A.D. 977), also in Dingzhou City.
Additional Images (Touch to enlarge)
8.
A DINGYAO WHITE PORCELAIN RIBBED
CYLINDRICAL BOX AND COVER
Northern Song Dynasty, A.D. 10th Century
Height 6 1⁄4 inches (15.9 cm)