Southern Song dynasty Qingbai Ware Dish
A Small Song Qingbai Porcelain Moulded `Twin Fish` Dish, Possibly from the Hutian Kilns, Jingdezhen, 12th or 13th Century. The center moulded with two fish swimming among flowering lotus, the rim with the deeply coloured glaze wiped clean. Qingbai porcelain dishes and bowls of this type were fired on their rims, therefore the glaze needed to wiped off. After firing the unglazed rim was normally bound in metal, this rarely survives, if it does it in normally in a decayed fragmentary state. The dish is shown with two related Song Qingbai porcelain kiln-wasters (Robert McPherson Antiques – Reference Collection – Not for sale).
SOLD
- Condition
- In good condition, small rim chips.
- Size
- Diameter : 10.3 cm (4 1/4 inches)
- Provenance
- From a Private American Collection.
- Stock number
- 26011
Photos
Information
Qingbai Ware
The earliest known qingbai wares were produced in Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province around the late 10th century and are characterized by faint pale-blue glazes on low, wide forms. Qingbai continued to be enormously popular and highly produced throughout the Song dynasty (960-1279) and was prevalent in the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), but slackened during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) until being replaced by tianbai, ‘sweet white’ ware. The initial forms of qingbai were simple bowls and dishes, but by the mid-Northern Song the forms had advanced to include a wide variety of objects used for daily life such as ewers, boxes, incense burners, granary models, vases, jars, sculptures, cups, cupstands, water droppers, lamps, grave wares, and tools for writing and painting. The precedent for the majority of these forms is found in earlier metalwork and lacquer and Rawson has suggested that the imitation of silver was the primary force behind the production of white wares, including qingbai. See our `History` section for more information about Song Porcelain and Stoneware by Mindy M. McDonald.
