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| 33 A very fine and rare glazed pottery offering dish Tang dynasty Diameter: 11 1/2 in, 29 cm supported on three loop feet, the dish has a flat well and shallow sides that curve into an everted rim. The centre is impressed with a six-petalled flower head surrounded by six heart-shaped leafy blooms, each containing a bud, linked by small rings and trefoil designs, all in blue, ochre and amber on a cream ground. The floral design is reserved against an amber ground with wax-resist dots. The sides and feet are covered with a dark blue glaze, the interior sides with wax-resist dots. The base is left unglazed. |
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This dating is consistent with Oxford’s report 766b80. Similar dishes, some with cabriole feet, are known, but the blue-glazed sides make this a particularly rare example. Medley discusses the origins of these dishes with flattened rims in Metalwork and Chinese Ceramics, p. 6. The floral patterns can be compared with Sogdian silver examples and almost certainly originate in Central Asian metalwork. In Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, Brinker and Lutz draw attention to the relationship between such incised floral medallions and a medallion painted in colours on an ivory ruler from the Tang dynasty in the Shosoin, Nara: see figs. 23-4, p. 43. For a full discussion of such rosettes, see Rawson, The Ornament on Chinese Silver of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-906), pp. 16-18. A very similar dish from the Clark collection is illustrated in The Arts of the T’ang Dynasty, no. 78, pl. 7g, also illustrated in Lion-Goldschmidt and Moreau-Gobard, Chinese Art, no. 171, p. 238, where it is described as “one of the most beautiful of all known glazed T’ang dishes”. Similar dishes with plain green rims are illustrated in Thorp and Bower, Spirit and Ritual: The Morse Collection of Ancient Chinese Art, no. 54, pp. 82-3; and in Wang, The Sui-Tang Culture, p. 17. For further examples, see Medley, T’ang Pottery & Porcelain, pls. C and 33; and The Ceramic Art of China, pl. 31, no. 43. |
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