17. IMPORTANT WHITE-GLAZED STONEWARE BOTTLE
Tang Dynasty (618-907)
9 7/8” (25.2 cm.) high

The very well potted vessel has a sturdy footring and a tall slender neck with a sharply flared rim rising from the swelling form of the body. A few stress lines from the throwing are visible around the body. The glaze has a silky texture and very pale ivory tone with fine craquelure; the clay is very dense and white in colour.

The form of this classic vase is frequently referred to in Chinese as guanyinping associated with the Buddhist deity Avalokitesvara and is also found in bronze and silver of the Tang period. The current example, however, is one of the most successful and gracefully proportioned among ceramic counterparts with a particularly harmonious relationship between the swelling body and the delicate, high neck.

Better known in Japan as an oji-shaped vase, this form of vases first appeared in the Six Dynasties period and were highly prized in Japan. A Northern Wei bronze example from a tomb dated 524 A.D. is published in Kaogu 1972.5, pp. 33-35, pl. VIII.I. In ceramics, this vase appears most often in a white glaze. The present example is one of the most well-preserved of this kind. The nearest example is the vase published in Homage to Heaven, Homage to Earth, Chinese Treasures of the Royal Ontario Museum, col. pl. 26. Another with a repaired neck dated Sui to Tang Dynasty was included in the exhibition Chinese White Porcelain: Northern Qi – Ming, Yongle, Uragami Sokyu-Do Co., Ltd., Tokyo, November 1991, catalogue no. 21.