Lot 17

A VERY RARE MARBLED EWER 10TH CENTURY

Estimate

150,000 - 200,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

the finely potted globular body formed of two hemispherical sections, each formed from striated cream and dark brown clays, applied with a cream coloured short curved spout, tall slightly waisted neck and a strap handle, all supported on a short spreading cream coloured foot and covered overall in a translucent ivory coloured glaze

Provenance

Collection of Alfred and Ivy Clark (inventory no. 494).

Exhibited

International Exhibition of Chinese Art, the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935, cat.no.2536.
L'Art de la Chine Ancienn, Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris, 1937, cat.no. 397.
The Arts of the T'ang Dynasty, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1955, cat.no. 265.
The Arts of the T'ang Dynasty, Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, 1957, cat.no. 265.

Literature

Basil Gray, Early Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1953, pl.33.

Catalogue Note

Marbled ewers are extremely rare and the present vessel is remarkable for its vibrant and deep brown splashed marble effect on the transparent ivory-coloured glaze and for its exceptionally well preserved condition.

For a related ewer with marbled body and plain white neck, spout and handle, see one illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. Three (two), London, 2006, pl. 1527, with a cover. Compare also a slightly larger ewer in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from the Charles B. Hoyt collection, published in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol. 10, Tokyo, 1980, pl. 120; and another fragmentary piece of related form but lacking the spout, handle and neck, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in Zhongguo taoci quanji, vol. 7, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 199.