This vase was made some time between 960 and 1279, the classical period in the history of Chinese ceramics. Kilns appeared in all parts of China, each kiln with its own specialized products. Centuries later they were much sought after by collectors. A systematic classification of the different wares was already well established in the 1400s, whereby ceramics were named after the town in which the kilns operated. The best known wares are Ru, Ding, Jun, Yaozhou, Cizhou, Yue, Guan, Longquan, Jian, Jizhou and Qingbai. This piece is a Cizhou ware.
Place of Origin
China (northern, made)
Date
1115-1200 (made)
Artist/maker
Unknown (production)
Materials and Techniques
Stoneware, painted and glazed
Dimensions
Height: 24.5 cm, Diameter: 21 cm
Descriptive line
Cizhou ware
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Baker, Malcolm and Richardson, Brenda, eds. A Grand Design : The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: V&A Publications, 1997. 431 p., ill. ISBN 1851773088.
An example of vernacular rather than imperial applied art, this vase was purchased in 1935 as part of the collection of George Eumorfopoulos. Formed in accordance with a modernist aesthetic, Eumorfopoulos's collection contained earlier Chinese ceramics thus complementing the later pieces bequeathed twenty-five years earlier by George Salting (cat.107)
The vase was made in Cizhou, formerly a county in present-day Hebei province, north of the Yellow River. Using iron oxide as a colourant, the potter painted two large peony sprays on each side, adding fluttering butterflies and smaller insects between the sprays and a row of stylized petals on the shoulders. Cizhou ware, though popular into the sixteenth century, never enjoyed imperial patronage, apart from a few court orders for wine jars. When the Qing dynasty collapsed in 1912 and the imperial collection of ceramics in the Forbidden City was examined, no Cizhou ware was found. Private collectors were, however, interested in it, although primarily for its antiquity. The Ge Gu Yao Lun (A Discussion of the Essential Criteria of Antiquities) of 1388 commends ""old Cizhou ware"" but warns that ""contemporary pieces are not worth discussing.""
Collectors in the West became interested in Cizhou ware only during the early years of this century, when excavations unearthed many pieces. This vase was lent by Eumorfopoulos to an exhibition, ""Chinese Applied Art,"" at the City of Manchester Art Gallery in 1913, two years before a chapter on Cizhou was included in R.L. Hobson's Chinese Pottery and Porcelain (1915).
Eumorfopoulos was one of the first collectors to show an interest in vernacular art, at a time when colourful overglaze, enamelled porcelain and blue and white pieces were the fashion.
As first president of London's Oriental Ceramic Society, he played a major role in introducing early ceramics into the canon of Chinese art. Such was his influence that a generation later the renowned English potter Bernard Leach (1887-1979) expressed great admiration for the free and vigorous brushwork evident in pots such as this one and produced work in much the same style.
Following the collapse of Eumorfopoulos's fortunes in the slump of the 1930s, his immense collection, particularly strong in Chinese ceramics, bronzes and sculpture of the pre-Song (960-1279) period, was purchased at an advantageous price by the British Government and divided between the British Museum and the V&A. These acquisitions profoundly influenced the study and acquisition of Chinese material in both institutions.
Lit. Manchester City Art Gallery, 1913, no.750; Hobson, 1926, no.C273; Royal Academy, 1935, no.1264; Ayers, 1983, p.22; Kerr, 1991, p.242
MING WILSON
Exhibition History
A Grand Design - The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum (Victoria and Albert Museum 12/10/1999-16/01/2000)
International Exhibition of Chinese Art (Royal Academy of Arts 01/01/1935-31/12/1936)
Labels and date
Vase with floral design
Jin dynasty (1115-1200)
Cizhou kilns, north China
Stoneware painted in iron black
Museum no.C.32-1935
From the Eumorfopoulos collection, purchased with the assistance of The Art Fund, the Vallentin Bequest, Sir Percival David and the Universities China Committee [2007]
Categories
Ceramics; Stoneware; Vases
Collection code
EAS
