北宋 青白六出盞及托
The cup is supported on a high splayed foot. The gently rounded sides are delicately potted, rising to a flared rim divided by notches into six lobes. The stand is dish-shaped with a lipped flat rim lobed to match the cup, encircling the central holder of circular stepped form, all raised on a splayed foot composed of six fused petal-like lobes each pierced with a ruyi-shaped aperture. Both cup and cupstand are covered in a translucent pale blue glaze pooling to a deeper tone in the recesses of the decoration. The undersides of both have unglazed areas with characteristic burnt traces of the iron kiln support.
Provenance:
Tai Sing Fine Antiques Ltd, Hong Kong, 5th July 2000
From the Xingyangtang Collection, sold in Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 30th November 2018, lot 628
A pair of very similar cups and stands were included in the exhibition Qingbai Wares of the Song Dynasty, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, illustrated catalogue no. 17. For another qingbai cup and cupstand, but of slightly differing form, see The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, edited by Jessica Rawson, p.29, no. 9, where it is noted that the copying of silver originals, as here, led potters to develop this exceptionally delicate ware.