Ancient Civilisations III – Neolithic Pottery including the Collection of Ronald W. Longsdorf

Ancient Civilisations III – Neolithic Pottery including the Collection of Ronald W. Longsdorf

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 816. A large black 'eggshell' pottery cup, Longshan culture, c. 2500-2000 BC 龍山文化 蛋殼黑陶盃.

Property from the Ronald W. Longsdorf Collection | Ronald W. Longsdorf 收藏

A large black 'eggshell' pottery cup, Longshan culture, c. 2500-2000 BC 龍山文化 蛋殼黑陶盃

Lot Closed

May 31, 02:28 AM GMT

Estimate

40,000 - 60,000 HKD

Lot Details

Description

Property from the Ronald W. Longsdorf Collection | Ronald W. Longsdorf 收藏

A large black 'eggshell' pottery cup,

Longshan culture, c. 2500-2000 BC

龍山文化 蛋殼黑陶盃


h. 10.7 cm

Ronald W. Longsdorf, The Pottery Age: An Appreciation of Neolithic Ceramics from China, Circa 7000 BC - Circa 1000 BC, Hong Kong, 2020, pl. 48.


Ronald W. Longsdorf,《陶誌:中國新石器時代陶器 約西元前7000年 – 前1000年》,香港,2020年,圖版48

The present handled cup is a rare example of a wheel-turned pottery vessel of the Longshan culture. It is exceptionally fine for its even potting, paper-thin walls and glossy black sheen. The use of the potter's wheel was a technological breakthrough during this period which enabled more sophisticated forming than the coil-built method traditionally used (Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2006, vol. 3 (I), p. 46). The Longshan potters utilised this new technique to create eggshell-thin vessels of breathtaking elegance, shaving the walls to minimal thickness with the help of a tool.


The subtly waisted cup is minimally adorned with horizontal strings. The simplicity of the design and the quintessential functionality is underlined by the double-strand handle, which is carefully balanced by a small boss on the opposite side. Compare a Longshan culture black 'eggshell' pottery handled cup, also adorned with a small boss excavated from Shandong, included in Shandong shiqian taoqi tulu [A catalogue of prehistoric pottery of Shandong], Jinan, 1986, p. 130, and illustrated again in Ronald W. Longsdorf, op.cit., p. 150, fig. 3.


此龍山文化陶盃以快輪拉坯製成,極爲珍罕,壁薄匀稱,光澤明亮,展現陶匠絕藝。快輪拉坯乃該時期之重要技術突破,比較傳統泥條盤築法,成器更見精巧(康蕊君,《玫茵堂中國陶瓷》,倫敦,1994-2006年,卷3(I),頁46)。龍山文化陶匠善用新技,所出陶器優雅絕倫,以快輪之助,成纖薄器壁。


此盃器身妙添平行幼線,凸顯稍微束腰,一側配單環耳,與另一面的小撮陶泥暗相呼應,造型雖簡,透露匠心獨運。參考山東出土一龍山文化蛋殼黑陶單耳盃,一側同樣飾以小撮陶泥,收入《山東史前陶瓷圖錄》,濟南,1986年,頁130,又刊於 Ronald W. Longsdorf,前述出處,頁150,圖3。