Property from a Philadelphia Private Collection
A small 'Xing' white-glazed ewer, Tang dynasty
Lot Closed
June 27, 03:40 PM GMT
Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 USD
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Read more.Lot Details
Description
Height 3¾ in., 9.7 cm
Collection of Dr Carl Kempe (1884-1967).
Sotheby's London, 5th November 2008, lot 439 (part lot).
Robert McPherson, London.
Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1955, cat. no. 203.
Bo Gyllensvard, Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1964, pl. 287.
White-glazed ewers of this type were produced in the 10th century in a variety of different sizes, taking inspiration from the intricate lion handles found in Central Asian metalwork but reworked and perfected in the kaolin-rich hills of Northern China. Compare a closely related lion-handled ewer, likely produced at the Xing kilns of Hebei, formerly in the Eumorfopoulos Collection, now preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in R. L. Hobson, The Catalogue of the George Eumorfopoulos Collection of Chinese, Corean, and Persian Pottery and Porcelain, vol. I, London, 1925, pl. LXXIV, cat. no. 503; another of this miniature size sold in our London rooms, 9th November 2018, lot 249; and another from the collection of Emmanuel Christofides (1928-2020), sold at Bonhams London, 15th May 2025, lot 19.