WINTER EXHIBITION 2008 - Roger Keverne

48 ROGER KEVERNE WINTER 2008
36
A pair of glazed pottery vases
Liao dynasty
Height: 16D in, 41.2 cm
each ovoid vessel flares slightly towards the foot, with a recessed base, and has a tapering,
cylindrical neck, issuing from a moulded phoenix head, and a cup-shaped mouth with a foliate
rim. The only other adornment is pairs of incised lines. Apart from the bases that reveal the
buff pottery, the vases are covered in white slip and crackled amber glaze.
This dating is consistent with Oxford’s report 766e81.
It appears to be extremely rare to find a pair of such vases, and this example is particularly
well matched.
For single vessels, see Egami, Three-Colour Ware, no. 67, in the collection of the Liaoning
Provincial Museum; Medley, T’ang Pottery and Porcelain, pl. 131, p. 135, in the collection of
the Honolulu Academy of Arts; and Shen, Gilded Splendor: Treasures of China’s Liao Empire
(907–1125), no. 106, pp. 338–9, from the walled city of Qingzhou, Suoboriga Township, Balin
Right Banner and now in the Museum of Balin Right Banner, and note the interesting discourse
on the origins of these vases.
See also an example in Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I): The Complete Collection of
Treasures of the Palace Museum, no. 241, p. 266, with the more usual type of glaze that stops
well short of the foot.