A Cizhou-type rouletted jar
金 十二世紀 磁州窯系黑地跳刀紋罐
The jar is of well potted shouldered ovoid form supporting a low straight neck encircling the wide mouth, all supported on a low straight foot of broad cross-section. The sides are decorated in tiaodao technique (literally, “jumping knife”) with more than ten registers of closely-spaced chatter- marks cut through the overlying dark-brown slip to a creamy slip below, all beneath a clear glaze. The interior is glazed in dark brown. The footrim is unglazed, showing the fine greyish-buff ware.
The tiaodao technique - one of the more innovative in Chinese ceramic art – was practised by a number of kilns in Henan, Hebei and Shanxi, but those now believed to have made the finest examples, like the present jar, are the Dangyangyu kilns in Xiuwu County, Henan. The jar is first prepared with the application of very dark brown slip over a cream-coloured one and a knife is then held against the side as it is spun on the wheel. Like chalk on a blackboard, at a particular speed the knife will start to “jump” producing these characteristic chatter marks. For examples of rouletted jars believed to be from the Danyangyu kilns, see Yang Junyan, Zhongguo Gu Ci Yao Da Xi Zhongguo Dangyanyuyao, ‘Series of China’s Ancient Porcelain Kiln Sites: Dangyangyu Kiln of China’, p. 263 figs. 31 and 32, the former showing a jar and cover in the Tokyo National Museum, the latter a deep bowl in the Wangye Museum in Shenzhen. For a further jar, see Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Vol.1, pl. 265, no. 483.
Dimensions: Height: 9.4 cm, 3 ¾ inches
Date: Song dynasty (960-1127)
Stock No. 2204
Price: On Request