A rare 'Dengfeng' 'Peony' meiping, Northern Song dynasty (960-1279)

Lot 74. A rare 'Dengfeng' 'Peony' meiping, Northern Song dynasty (960-1279) Height 15 3/8  in., 39 cm. Estimate 80,000 — 100,000 USD. Lot sold 430,000 USD.Photo Sotheby's

of slender ovoid form, rising from a recessed base to a rounded shoulder and narrow short-waisted neck with a lipped rim, covered overall with a white slip and freely incised with a broad band of stylized peony, with a classic scroll band below the neck and overlapping petals around the base, all on a ground of stamped rings.

Literature: Chugoku meito ten: Chugoku toji 2000-nen no seika [Exhibition of Chinese Pottery: Two Thousand Years of Chinese Ceramics], Tokyo, 1992, no. 30

Note: Freely carved with a bold design of floral sprays on a ground of tightly stamped rings that are often referred to as 'fish roe', this meiping is comparable in form and style of decoration to a number of meiping excavated from the Dengfeng kilns in Henan province, illustrated in Series of China's Ancient Porcelain Kiln Sites. Dengfeng Kiln of China, Beijing, 2011, pls. 6-11. Vessels of this type were influenced by Tang metalwork, evident in the ‘fish roe’ ground, which imitates the effect of ring-punched ground. Furthermore, the leafy scroll on the shoulder is reminiscent of classic scrolls on silver vessels.

Related meiping include one, from the collection of R.L. Banks, sold three times in our London rooms, in 1971, 1973 and, 9th December 1975, lot 114; a slightly smaller example, in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, The Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, included in the exhibition Freedom of Clay and Brush through Seven Centuries in Northern China. Tz'u-chou Type Wares, 960-1600 A.D., The Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, 1980, pl. 18; and another with floral blooms, in the Meiyintang collection, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, vol. 1, 1994, pl. 491. See also a larger meiping carved with a petal diaper over a fish-roe ground, in the Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, included in the exhibition Freedom of Clay and Brush, op. cit., pl. 27; and another from the collection of J.C. Thomson, sold in our London rooms, 15th June 1982, lot 50.

Meiping of this type are also known carved with a variety of motifs; see one decorated with a standing scholar, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics. The World’s Great Collections, Tokyo, vol. 10, 1980, no. 24; and another carved with a ferocious beast, 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.

Sotheby's. Song Tradition: Early Ceramics from the Yang De Tang Collection. New York, 17 march 2015, 11:00 AM