The bowl is of open, almost conical form, with the rim lightly divided by notches into six lobes. The interior is crisply moulded with a continuous scroll of stylized flowers, two with centres shaped rather like pomegranates, with calyx and numerous seeds, and two depicted side on, all borne on a slender scrolling stem with dense feathery foliage, around a slightly convex central field moulded with a rosette of radiating petals around a small flowerhead. The whole is applied with a celadon glaze of light blue-green tone, pooling to deeper tones in the recesses of the decoration and in a ring around the central circle, and extending over the undecorated exterior. The small, neatly made footrim has traces of three spur marks.
Provenance:
From a Japanese private collection, Osaka, acquired in the 1950-60s
Christie’s Hong Kong, 3rd June 2015, lot 3211
The decoration on this remarkable
bowl, with its blowsy, rather pomegranate-like peony blossoms, resembles quite closely
that found on certain Chinese ceramics of the twelfth century, particularly
those from the Ding kilns. For an example of a Ding dish of this type, with
similar decoration but enclosed by a keyfret border, see Jan Wirgin,
Sung Ceramic Designs
, pl. 82a and discussed by the author, pp. 145-6. The
Korean bowl, while similar, has notable differences, particularly the wide
central rosette. Perhaps the most likely explanation for the similarity is that
both the Chinese and the Korean ceramic bowls followed similar silver
prototypes.