A 'Cizhou' Sgraffiato White-Glazed Jar (Meiping) Northern Song Dynasty

of ovoid form, covered overall with a white slip, decorated with a series of three bands from the slender shoulder down to the robust body, the top band incised with overlapping lotus petals, above two friezes of lush peony and chrysanthemum scrolls, all against a stamped 'fish roe' ground and separated by double-incised rings, the tapering foot left plain, with an everted neck and rounded mouthrim, the base left bare revealing the gray ground

The vase is in good overall condition, with a slight lean to the neck, the mouthrim with some warpage. The mouth with a 2 inch long section with glaze pull and flakes. Minor discoloration of glaze at the shoulder lappets. Three kiln adhesions to the body. A small firing flaw at the foot with two chips at the foot ring, the largest 1/2 inch long.
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This vase is a fine example of Cizhou-type wares made in the Dengfeng kilns in northern Henan province from the 10th to the early 12th century. The incised decoration on a ground of closely stamped rings that resemble 'fish-roe' shows the influence of Tang dynasty metalwork. Meiping stamped with the 'fish-roe' pattern and horizontal design bands are grouped by Yutaka Mino among the early wares of this type. See Yutaka Mino's extensive discussion on the Dengfeng and Cizhou-type wares in Freedom of Clay and Brush through Seven Centuries in Northern China: Tz'u-chou Type Wares, 960-1600 A.D., Indianapolis, 1981, pp. 54-60. 

In shape the present meiping is comparable with a qingbai meiping found in a tomb near Nanjing dated to 1038 A.D. of the Northern Song dynasty and illustrated in Dated Qingbai Wares of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 10. Two related examples of this rounded meiping shape are recorded from the Dengfeng kilns; one in the Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, decorated with a large floral scroll on a 'fish-roe' ground above a band of overlapping lotus petals around the base, illustrated in Mino, op.cit., pl. 60; and the other also of similar size incised with fierce beasts over a 'fish-roe' ground, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong 1996, pl. 178.

The bold flower scroll decoration on the present piece is comparable with that found on an ewer in the Art Institute of Chicago, attributed to the mid-11th century and illustrated in Mino, op.cit., p. 68, pl. 22, together with a meiping, formerly in the Alexander collection, fig. 46.

See three further examples of Dengfeng wares of the Northern Song period incised with design patterns over 'fish-roe' ground illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), op.cit., pls. 179, a six-tubed bottle, pl. 180, an octagonal pillow, and pl. 181, an oval pillow.