Small Ovoid Jar with Partridge-Feather Mottles
12th century
Description
This ovoid jar sports a lustrous black glaze enlivened with russet splashes. Of thinly potted form, the jar is surmounted by a short, upright neck with an unglazed rim around the wide mouth. (The unglazed lip indicates that the jar originally had a cover, now lost, which would have been fired in place.) The jar is covered inside and out with a lustrous, dark brown glaze that appears black in reflected light. Randomly applied splashes of matte russet-brown slip enliven the dark glaze, the splashes running downward and shading to iridescent green tones at the margins; since Song times, Chinese connoisseurs have termed the type of mottles that embellish this piece "partridge feather decoration." The well-controlled glaze ends in an even line well short of the high, lightly splayed foot, exposing the light gray stoneware body on the lower portion of the piece; the exposed body clay assumed a pale buff skin in firing.
Dimensions
H. 12.7 x Diam. 13.4 cm (5 x 5 1/4 in.)
Provenance
J.J. Lally & Co., New York (March-April 2009) Dr. and Mrs. Marvin L. Gordon Collection, San Francisco (1985-2009) Sotheby's, London, 10 December 1985, lot 149 (1985) Frederick Knight, London (1972-1985) Bluett & Sons, London (1972) Professor Postan and Lady Cynthia Postan, London (1940s-1972)
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