Northern Song Dynasty (A.D. 960-1127)
thinly potted, the gently rounded flaring sides moulded on the interior with two apsaras shown surrounded by stylized scrolling clouds, with long trailing scarves fluttering back from their shoulders, each bearing an offering on a dish held out in one hand as they fly effortlessly above swirling waves, and with sprigs of spiky leaves between the two figures, in a wide medallion enclosed by a plain border around the rim, the underside incised with thin lines radiating from the small ring foot, covered inside and out with an olive-green glaze pooling to a darker tone in the recesses, the raised lines of the design showing through in pale buff tones.
Diameter 6 1⁄8 inches (15.5 cm)
A Yaozhou celadon bowl of this rare pattern excavated at the Yaozhou kiln site is illustrated in Song Dai Yaozhou Yao Zhi (The Yaozhou Kiln Site of the Song Period), Beijing, 1998, fig. 68, no. 4, p. 123.
北宋 耀州青磁印花飛天紋碗 徑 15.5 厘米