Large Cizhou Jar, Yuan Dynasty

This vase is sturdily potted with a robust ovoid body that rises from a short, spreading foot to a gently tapering neck, finishing with a lipped mouth rim. The exterior is decorated in black over an even white slip, featuring a large blooming flower surrounded by foliage, interspersed with scrolling motifs and a floral element. Glazed in black with russet splashes.

Period : Yuan-Ming Dynasty(13th-16th century)
Type : Jar
Medium : Cizhou Ware
Size : 37.5 cm(Height), 24.2cm(Mouth Diameter)
Condition : Good(Minor chips at surface and mouth)
Provenance : Acquired in late 1990s from Hongkong
Reference
1) Sotheby's Hongkong 04 April 2017 - Song Ceramics From A Distinguished Private Collector - Lot 3227 
(Price realised : 100,000 - 150,000 HKD / Type : Closely related)
https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/song-ceramics-from-distinguished-private-collector-hk0726/lot.3227.html
2) Indianapolis Museum of Art Accession Number: 81.287
(Type : Closely related)
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/jar-17
3) Sotheby's Hongkong 18 October 2022 - CHADŌ – The Beauty of Japanese Tea Ceremony - Lot 651
(Price realised : 100,000 - 150,000 HKD / Type : Closely related)
https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/chado-the-beauty-of-japanese-tea-ceremony/a-cizhou-black-painted-peony-jar-yuan-dynasty-yuan
4) The MET - Accession number 1991.253.23
(Type : Closely related)

* Cizhou Ware

Cizhou is the name given to a number of stonewares, grey or buff, of varying degrees of hardness, with painted, incised or carved decoration on a clay slip. These stonewares were not only made in the region of Cizhou, Hebei Province, but in several provinces of China during the Song, Yuan and Ming periods. The great centres of production were in the north of China in the provinces of Hebei, Henan and Shanxi.

Cizhou wares seem to have been very popular, made for a clientèle of rich merchants, at a period when the paintings of famous artists adorned the walls of tea houses of the capital. While this type of pottery did not apparently attract Chinese collectors of the 18th and 19th centuries, it was much appreciated by the Japanese as a kind of folk art, for its rustic look. Nowadays Cizhou fetch very high prices at public auctions.

In the past fifty years, kilns producing Cizhou wares have been identified and excavated. This has made it possible to know the exact origin of certain types and to study the evolution of the ware.

Song potters used several methods of decorating Cizhou: vases, jars, pots, boxes and pillows. Champleve decoration appears at the beginning of the Song period in Henan at Dengfengxian and at Xiuwu. This method consisted of covering the vessel with a white slip, then carving and incising the design as to expose the brown of the body below. The whole surface was then glazed. After firing, the brown of the body formed a striking contrast with that of the glaze covering the white slip. Sometimes the design stands out against a ground of little circles stamped with a metal or bamboo tool. This decoration was often used on Tang metalwork. A variant of the technique used in the 11th century consisted of incising the little circles through the slip, then filling the lines with brick-red paint. The object, generally a pillow or cup, was then glazed. In another type of decoration called sgraffito, two layers of slip were placed one over the other, a brown slip, for example, over a white one, or vice versa over the parts destined for decoration; then the design was drawn by incising and scratching the upper layer, and the whole thing was covered with a transparent glaze.