New Forms - Song/Yuan

26
A RARE MARBLED VASE ‘YUHUCHUNPING’
Five Dynasties-Northern Song dynasty, 907-1127
絞 胎 釉 玉 壺 春 瓶 ( 五 代 - 北 宋 907-1127)
Dimensions: 19.7 cm high
The elegantly potted, pear-shaped body sitting on a short foot and rising to a slender
neck with flaring rim. The vase is expertly potted using twisted cream and darkbrown
coloured clays spiralling from the foot toward the rim of the vase.
This special marbling technique is called jiao tai (mixed clay) in Chinese. It was
achieved by twisting and kneading together cream and dark-brown coloured clays.
It allowed for a wide range of almost abstract, decorative possibilities.
This technique was first developed in the Tang dynasty and is believed to have been
inspired by marbled glass from the West that made its way to Han Dynasty, China
along the Silk Route. It continued to be used in the Song dynasty, with fragments
of marbled wares excavated from kiln sites in Henan province.
Compare another Song dynasty pear-shaped vase decorated to simulate marble in
the collection of the Museum of East Asian Art, Bath. A ‘Cizhou’ vase of similar
shape with applied pigments of black, brown and white to simulate marble was sold
at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, ‘Curiosity III’, 3 April 2017, lot 3043.