J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
MenuPast Exhibition
Early Chinese Ceramics: An American Private Collection
March 28 - April 16, 2005
15.
AN EARLY WHITE PORCELAIN EWER
Tang Dynasty, A.D. 8th/9th Century
with sculptural handle modelled as a stretching lion shown standing on the shoulder of the ovoid vessel, grasping the inner rim of the flaring trumpet-shaped neck with its forepaws and peering inside, with freely modelled and incised details delineating the lion’s head and applied with a moulded curly mane and short tufted tail, the short tubular spout rising from the opposite shoulder, modelled as a dragon’s head with pointed snout, long horns and short beard, and with a raised collar of ribbing at the join, covered inside and out with a crackled translucent glaze, pooling at one side and lightly stained on the shoulder, the neck broken on one side and skillfully repaired using original material, the very fine-grained white body clay exposed at the base and the flat foot with chamfered edge showing original cracks from the firing.
Height 8 1⁄4 inches (20.9 cm)
Compare the very similarly modelled white ewer of smaller size with a copper mount on the cut down neck in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., illustrated in their compendium of selected masterpieces, The Freer Gallery of Art, Vol. I, China, J. A. Pope ed., Tokyo, 1972, no. 87. Another similar ewer, of smaller size, is in the Hans Popper collection, illustrated by d’Argencé in The Hans Popper Collection of Oriental Art, San Francisco and Japan, 1973, no. 71, p. 112, together with a miniature example. Other miniature examples are illustrated by Gyllensvärd in Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1964, p. 100, nos. 287–289; by Krahl in Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyingtang Collection, Vol. I, London, 1994, no. 204, p. 124; and another from the Avery Brundage Collection in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is illustrated by He Li in Chinese Ceramics: The New Standard Guide, London, 1996, no. 141.
唐 白瓷獅柄壺 高 20.9 厘米
