WINTER EXHIBITION 2008 - Roger Keverne

42 ROGER KEVERNE WINTER 2008
31
A rare glazed pottery lamp
Late Northern dynasties, circa late 6th century
Height: 7I in, 19.1 cm
the very slightly waisted cylindrical vessel has a wide, sloping flange rim, incised with a leaf
scroll, and is supported on a tall stem. The upper part of the stem is applied with three figures
of seated lion-like animals with bushy eyebrows and long manes; the lower part is bell-shaped
and pierced with three shaped cartouches separated by applied rosettes. With the exception of
a patch inside the vessel and the interior of the stem, a glossy deep green glaze, degraded and
crackled in places and with oily iridescence on the rim, covers the reddish earthenware.
This dating is consistent with Oxford Authentication’s report C106n48.
The closest comparison to this rare vessel is a lamp with green and brown glazes and sculptural
felines in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Valenstein, A Handbook of
Chinese Ceramics, no. 48, pp. 54–5, and again in Valenstein, Cultural Convergence in the
Northern Qi Period: A Flamboyant Chinese Ceramic Container, fig. 49, p. 116.