Ancient Chinese, Tang dynasty Pottery Jar with floral motif - (1)

ITEM: Jar with floral motif MATERIAL: Pottery CULTURE: Chinese, Yuan dynasty PERIOD: 1279 – 1368 A. D DIMENSIONS: 183 mm x 190 mm CONDITION: Good condition PROVENANCE: Ex English private collection, K. C, acquired in 1990s Comes with Certificate of Authenticity and European Union export license While the Mongol occupation destroyed much, it also shook China free from the static traditions and techniques of the late Southern Song and made possible many innovations, both in painting and in the decorative arts. The north was not progressive, and the main centre of pottery activity shifted permanently to the south. The northern traditions of Jun and Cizhou ware continued through the Jin and Yuan, bolder but coarser than before. New shapes included a heavy, wide-mouthed jar, sometimes with decoration boldly carved through a black or brown slip or painted in two or three colours. These new techniques and the overglaze painting already developed in the Jin dynasty prepared the way for the three- and five-colour wares of the Ming. While no Yuan celadon has the perfection of colour of Song Guan and Longchuan wares, being more olive green in tone, the quality is high. And the variety of decorative techniques used is far wider than that of the Song. These include raised relief designs molded under the glaze, fish and dragons raised “in the biscuit” (that is, unglazed) in relief, and iron-brown spots that the Japanese call tobi seiji (“flying celadon”) . Vases and dishes were now sturdily potted in porcelain, often mold-made, and of considerable size. Factories at Jingdezhen were expanding rapidly. While their products included celadon, their chief output, as before, was white porcelain, including richly modeled figurines of Guanyin and other Buddhist deities. Qingbai was now decorated with floral motifs and beading in raised relief or incised under the glaze, the most elaborate pieces combining flowers and vines in appliqué relief with openwork panels. A stronger, less sugar-white porcelain with molded or incised decoration was produced; called shufu ware, it sometimes bore the characters shufu, meaning “central government palace,” for the ware was often ordered by imperial officials. The earliest evidence of the use of cobalt blue, probably imported from the Middle East, is seen in its application as an underglaze pigment on fragments dating to the late 8th or early 9th century that were unearthed at Yangzhou in 1983. The occasional use of underglazed cobalt continued in the Northern Song. It was not until the Yuan dynasty, however, that underglazed blue decoration began a rapid rise in popularity. It was applied on fine white porcelains of the shufu type and combined with Islamic decorative taste. These blue-and-white wares soon became the most popular of all Chinese ceramics, both at home and abroad. A pair of richly ornate temple vases dated 1351 (in the Percival David Foundation in London) are proof that the technique had been fully mastered by that time. The finest Jingdezhen examples were reserved for the court, but coarse varieties were made in southern China for trade with Southeast Asia or for export to the Middle East. Experiments also were made with painting in underglaze copper red, but it was difficult to control and soon abandoned. Both the shapes and decoration of Yuan blue-and-white have a characteristic boldness. The motifs are richly varied, sometimes crowded and unrestrained, but at their best they have great splendour and vitality. Favourite motifs include the lotus, vines, and dragons that had already appeared on the shufu wares, creatures such as the qilin (“unicorn”) and longma (“dragon-horse”) , and fish and Daoist figures. Also popular for a while were scenes from historical dramas and romances written by unemployed Confucian scholars. 蒙古人的占领虽然破坏了很多东西，但也使中国摆脱了南宋末年一成不变的传统和技术，使绘画和装饰艺术的许多创新成为可能。北方没有进步，陶艺活动的主要中心永久地转移到南方。北方的钧器和慈州器的传统一直延续到金、元，比以前更大胆但更粗糙。新的造型包括厚重的宽口罐，有时在黑色或褐色的滑面上大胆地雕刻装饰，或涂上两三种颜色。这些新技术和晋代已经发展起来的釉上彩为明代的三彩、五彩器作了准备。 元青瓷虽然没有宋官、龙川器的色彩完美，多呈橄榄绿，但质量很高。而且所使用的装饰技法种类也远比宋器广泛。其中包括釉下模印的凸起浮雕、"饼中"(即无釉) 浮雕的鱼和龙，以及被日本人称为 "飞青瓷 "的铁褐色斑点。花瓶和盘子现在都是坚固的瓷器盆，通常是模制的，尺寸相当大。 景德镇的工厂迅速扩张。他们的产品包括青瓷，但他们的主要产品和以前一样，是白瓷，包括造型丰富的观音和其他佛教神像。青白瓷现在以浮雕或釉下刻划的花卉图案和串珠为装饰，最精致的作品是以贴花和藤蔓的浮雕与镂空板相结合。瓷器有的叫作 "书府器"，有的叫作 "书府"，意思是 "中央政府的宫殿"，因为这种器皿常常是由皇帝官员订购的。 1983年在扬州出土的8世纪晚期或9世纪早期的瓷器残片，是最早使用钴蓝的证据，可能是从中东传入的。偶尔使用釉下五彩的情况在北宋还在继续。但直到元代，釉下青花装饰才开始迅速普及。它被应用在精美的白瓷上，与伊斯兰教的装饰品味相结合。这些蓝白器皿很快就成为中国陶瓷中最受欢迎的器物，无论在国内还是国外。一对1351年的富丽堂皇的寺庙花瓶(藏于伦敦的Percival David基金会) 证明了这种技术在当时已经完全掌握。景德镇最好的例子是留给宫廷的，但中国南方也有粗制滥造的品种，用于与东南亚的贸易或出口到中东。 釉下铜红的绘画也曾做过实验，但很难控制，很快就被放弃了。元青花的造型和装饰都有一种特有的大胆。纹饰丰富多样，时而拥挤，时而奔放，但在最好的时候，它们具有极大的绚丽和生命力。最受歡迎的圖案有蓮、藤、龍等，還有麒麟、龍馬、魚、道教人物等。此外，历史剧中的场景和无业儒生写的爱情故事也一度流行。 If you bid outside European Union and win the item, we must request a new export license to your country and the shipment will delay between 3 - 5 weeks and the new licence will have a cost of 5% of the value of the item won 如果您在欧盟以外的国家竞标并中标，我们必须向您的国家申请新的出口许可证，发货将延迟3-5周。 The Seller can prove that the lot was obtained legally , provenance statement seen by Catawiki. Important information. The seller guarantees that he is entitled to ship this lot. The seller will take care that any necessary permits will be arranged. The seller will inform the buyer about this if this takes more than a few days. Catawiki disclaimer: This piece has been dated by the seller based on style and patina. No further tests, such as, a TL test, an analysis of pigments or radiography scans have been conducted to check the integrity of the piece.