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Lot Essay
Located in central Jiangxi province, the Jizhou kilns were perhaps the most daring, versatile and technically creative kilns of the Song dynasty. Although they produced a wide variety of wares, including northern-style white stonewares with molded and slip-painted designs, the kilns are perhaps most renowned for their innovative technique of using openwork paper cutouts as stencils to create resist designs. For a discussion of the processes involved in producing tortoiseshell glazes and designs using paper cut-outs, see R. D. Mowry, Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers - Chinese Brown-and Black-glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Cambridge, 1996, pp. 36-7.
It is exceptionally rare to find a Jizhou vase of this shape with paper-cut design of two phoenixes. Paper-cut designs of phoenixes are more often found on bowls, such as the example from the Falk Collection illustrated by R. D. Mowry, Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers - Chinese Brown-and Black-glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Cambridge, 1996, p. 243, no. 97, and subsequently sold in at Christie’s New York, 16 October, lot 92, or decorating brownish-black-glazed ovoid vases such as the example in the Harvard Art Museums illustrated ibid., pp. 253-4, no. 103, where the phoenixes are reserved in the biscuit and the details are picked out in black slip. Also of particular note is the extraordinarily well-preserved, lustrous glaze of the current vase which is accented by subtle milky blue streaks that concentrate in speckles on the wings of the two phoenixes.
Fenghuang (phoenix) is a combination of characters for the male and female animal, and thus the two phoenixes can be seen as representing a married couple and symbolizing marital felicity. The phoenix also symbolizes the qualities of virtue, duty, correct behavior, reliability and humanity, all ideal attributes for a wife. In legends, the phoenix not only represents the ruler but is seen only in times of peace. Depicted among other birds on paintings and works of art, the phoenix symbolizes the ruler in harmony with his officials.
It is exceptionally rare to find a Jizhou vase of this shape with paper-cut design of two phoenixes. Paper-cut designs of phoenixes are more often found on bowls, such as the example from the Falk Collection illustrated by R. D. Mowry, Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers - Chinese Brown-and Black-glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Cambridge, 1996, p. 243, no. 97, and subsequently sold in at Christie’s New York, 16 October, lot 92, or decorating brownish-black-glazed ovoid vases such as the example in the Harvard Art Museums illustrated ibid., pp. 253-4, no. 103, where the phoenixes are reserved in the biscuit and the details are picked out in black slip. Also of particular note is the extraordinarily well-preserved, lustrous glaze of the current vase which is accented by subtle milky blue streaks that concentrate in speckles on the wings of the two phoenixes.
Fenghuang (phoenix) is a combination of characters for the male and female animal, and thus the two phoenixes can be seen as representing a married couple and symbolizing marital felicity. The phoenix also symbolizes the qualities of virtue, duty, correct behavior, reliability and humanity, all ideal attributes for a wife. In legends, the phoenix not only represents the ruler but is seen only in times of peace. Depicted among other birds on paintings and works of art, the phoenix symbolizes the ruler in harmony with his officials.