Moulded Yaozhou Celadon Bowls, 12th Century China

A pair of Chinese moulded yaozhou celadon bowls, 12th century, Northern Song to Jin Dynasty, the slightly rounded flaring sides rising to a lipped rim, decorated on the interior with a crisply moulded design of six scrolling blooms, joined by a slender meandering stalk with tendrils of curling leaves, surrounding a flowerhead with radiating petals in the centre, the exterior incised with vertical patterns, covered all over in a shiny translucent olive-green glaze thinning in places near the base to orange-brown, the rim of the small foot and part of the countersunk base left unglazed, exposing the gray stoneware, 11 cm diam., 4.8 cm high, (2). Reference: The design of this pair of bowls was characteristic of the yaozhou kiln. Its moulding technique was also the most efficient method of shaping and decorating pottery then. A stoneware mould with impression of an identical design is illustrated in A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics. Damp clay would have been pressed against the matrix, which was carved in reserve; the mould helped to shape the vessel and also left a positive imprint of the design in relief on the inside. See: Valenstein, Suzanne G., A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975, P.84 There are many examples of this form and pattern collected by public institutes around the world, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Tokyo National Museum, and the National Palace Museum in Taipei. J.J. Lally & Co. Oriental Art lists an extensive publications of bowls of such by these institutes in the catalogue Brush & Clay: Paintings by Robert Ferris, Chinese Ceramics of the Song Dynasty from the Artist's Collection, J.J. Lally & Co. Oriental Art, 19 Sep to 18 Oct 1997, footnote to lot 6 A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics : Valenstein, Suzanne G., A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, 1975, 84 J.J. Lally & Co. Oriental Art19979191018Brush & Clay: Paintings by Robert Ferris, Chinese Ceramics of the Song Dynasty from the Artist's Collection6