Bowl Stand
1034-1094 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
A bowlstand was a luxury object, not a daily necessity. According to legend it was invented by a noblewoman in the 8th century. Finding a tea bowl too hot to hold in her hands she put it on a saucer, and to stop the bowl sliding on the saucer she put wax around its foot. The present bowlstand is made of lacquered silk and is extremely light. It is inscribed with the name of a lacquer workshop in Changsha, Hunan province, together with a cyclical date corresponding to either 1034 or 1094.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Silk, lacquered |
| Brief description | Bowl stand, brown lacquer on silk, Tanzhou, China, Song dynasty, dated 1034 or 1094 |
| Physical description | Bowl stand, covered in dark brown lacquer on silk, in the form of a round bottomless bowl, with an eight-lobed flange, inscribed in red lacquer in the interior of the bowl |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Marks and inscriptions | 甲戌潭州天慶觀東潢小五造記
|
| Gallery label | Bowl stand
Northern Song dynasty
Dated 1034 or 1094
The inscription records that the bowl stand was made in Tanzhou (now Changsha, capital of Hunan province).
Lacquer on a stiffened fabric core
Museum no. W.3-1938
From the Eumorfopoulos collection(2007) |
| Summary | A bowlstand was a luxury object, not a daily necessity. According to legend it was invented by a noblewoman in the 8th century. Finding a tea bowl too hot to hold in her hands she put it on a saucer, and to stop the bowl sliding on the saucer she put wax around its foot. The present bowlstand is made of lacquered silk and is extremely light. It is inscribed with the name of a lacquer workshop in Changsha, Hunan province, together with a cyclical date corresponding to either 1034 or 1094. |
| Bibliographic reference | Garner, Harry, Chinese Lacquer, London-Boston: Faber and Faber, 1979, p. 50, pl. 20
Hin-Cheung Lovell, 'Sung and Yuan Monochrome Lacquers in the Freer Gallery,' Ars Orientalis, vol. 9 (1973), p. 122. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.3-1938 |
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| Record created | July 7, 2006 |
| Record URL |
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