A rare carved white-glazed ewer, Five Dynasties period / Liao dynasty

German Private Collection.

Sotheby's London, 4th November 2020, lot 249.

In its material and carving style, this ewer is characteristic of products from the Longquanwu kilns in Beijing, which made fine white stonewares influenced by Ding forms, yet stylistically independent. Similarly carved ewers with regular side handle, with a related profile but a sloping shoulder set off at a distinct angle rather than the sunken shoulder seen here, have been recovered from the kiln site, see Beijing Longquanwu yao fajue baogao / Excavations of the Longquanwu Kiln-site in Beijing, Beijing, 2002, col. pl. 5, fig. 1, and pp. 284f.

The present shape is rare, but a comparable ewer with plain lobed sides, excavated from a tomb in Inner Mongolia, is illustrated in Peng Qingyun, Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan. Taoci juan [Complete masterpieces of Chinese cultural relics. Ceramics volume], Taipei, 1993, no. 489; another with a peony scroll around the body, was excavated at Liaoyang in Liaoning and published in Zhongguo taoci quanji [Complete series on Chinese ceramics], vol. 9, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 16; and another with plain lobed sides, was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 2nd June 2016, lot 666.