Dish with lion pedestal, glazed stoneware, Yaozhou ware, China, Jin dynasty (1115-1234). Diameter: 11.2 cm, Height: 7 cm. C.98-1939. Eumorfopoulos Collection. © V&A Images.
Yaozhou ware high-footed dish with lion pedestal. Flowers and floiage decorations on interior.
This dish is an example of Yaozhou wares typical of the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127). While the wares produced at the Yaozhou kiln complex enjoyed popularity from the end of the Tang Dynasty (618-906) through to the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), this dish exhibits the olive green glaze and carved designs common to the Yaozhou wares of the Northern Song period.
Yaouzhou objects were often decorated by creating intaglio floral designs into their surface, either by carving or through the use of moulds. A green celadon glaze was then applied, and allowed to pool into the crevices of the clay, and to run thin over any raised areas and at the edges. After firing, areas where the glaze ran thick were an opaque olive green and thin areas allowed for the golden brown tone of the body to show through, creating the range of tones visible in this dish.
Notes: Acquired as northern Chinese, Song dynasty: deemed modern, probably Japanese by John Ayers. Eumorfopoulos Collection.
Rose Kerr, in her book Song Dynasty Ceramics (2004, V&A) re-attributes this object as Yaozhou ware of the Jin dynasty.
Bibliographic References: Hobson, R.L. The George Eumorfopoulos collection II: catalogue of the Chinese, Corean and Persian pottery and porcelain. London: E. Benn, Ltd., 1925-1928. B173.
Kerr, Rose. Song Dynasty Ceramics. London: V&A Publications, 2004. p. 57, no. 52.