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This flask is about 10 inches tall, remnants of a paper label on the neck, catalog label on the bottom, and a few kanji characters on the base (Japanese?).
The glossy black glaze has quite an amazing iridescence, so much that several photos the blackness is lost.
I have seen this form of pilgrim flask attributed to the Song Dynasty, but the examples I’ve seen were a solid black, and lacked the star shaped flowers that decorate both sides of this flask.
The unglazed foot looks genuinely old.
So, those of you with knowledge in Song Dynasty wares, I would appreciate your assessments.
Thanks!
Did some searching through my reference works on Song ceramics and couldn’t tie that shape to anything from the 11th to the 13th century. However, I did see a similar shape produced in the Tang Dynasty around the 8th century.
This shape also exist in the Song dynasty I think. Here's an Longquan example from the Yuan dynasty that also has moulded flower decoration related to yours from wikipedia. It should be at Royal Ontario Museum.
Here's a brown-glazed vase dated to the Yuan dynasty also with moulded flower decoration from Heritage Auctions.
Here is a black glazed one from Ragoarts dated Jin to Yuan and said to be Henan kiln. That one also have a leafy decoration highlighted in russet. I know nothing about this auction so I can't say if it's reliable or not but from the impression you get from their website it seems to be a serious auction house.
So I spend the morning researching this flask and it looks to me as it is possibly ding-type. The similarity between the flask in focus and the flask at Heritage Auction is obvious with the overall shape and the moulded decoration, etc. (Hope Greeno doesn't mind that I'm copying one of his pictures)
And if you compare the Heritage Flask with this brown-glazed Ding bowl with moulded decoration from Christie's you can see that the yellowish brown glazes look very similar.
http://www.alaintruong.com/archives/2015/09/03/32577571.html
And note the similarity of the bases that are both covered in a more plain brown glaze.
And then there is this brown-glazed Ding bowl with moulded flower-decoration at Jilin Provincial Museum depicted in a catalogue-note from Christie's regarding the sale of a persimmon-glazed Ding bowl.
http://www.alaintruong.com/archives/2018/06/03/36458131.html
I think it's an interesting flask that is most likely authentic even though it's probably a little later than Song and if it's Ding-type it could possibly be valuable. But now I'll wait for Green and/or others to reply before I share more of my thoughts on it.
Avatar, Some great research on comparatives! Thank you!
I don’t have much to add to the discussion - I’m often quite adverse to buying early wares because their age is so often difficult to tell without TL testing.
However, as mentioned in my ‘Good Estate Sale’ post, the prior owner was reputable, having both the knowledge and means to acquire genuine pieces during his long career living/working in Asia, along with a house full of genuine antiques that I could authenticate.
What I can say is, setting aside the flask form, and comparing the black glaze to others that have come through major auctions, the piece appears to have all the bells and whistles.
Not having the experience to know the nuances of Song glazed, on purely an aesthetic level, the grouping of textured flowers has created a rather magnificent mixture of oily black with swirling pools of brown that really dazzle the eye.
My cellphone camera has really struggled to capture the look in outside light conditions because the surface of te flask reflects surrounding light and color.
I’ll post more photos if I can while at my hotel using indoor light.
If anyone has thoughts on how to classify the the specific style of black glaze, I’m interested.
Also, I’m curious of the kanji script… I’ll post a better photo… perhaps a translation will reveal more about the age.
Glad to know you find the flask intriguing as I have. Many thanks to your research!
What a fabulous collection of Chinese black wares sold at Rago Auctions. I had no idea she had collected in this area since she was known for dealing in early American paintings along with husband Peter who specializes in antique American furniture. It is rather strange that the Chinese collection was sold through Rago, which specializes in 20th century furniture & decorative arts. I found it rather telling that they didn’t specifically date any of her Jun ware examples.
@william That is an interesting observation. Perhaps she had a long time relationship with Rago, that her heirs did not seek out an auction house like Christie’s to sell the Asian pieces.
Some good results in several lots, so I suspect that even better results could have been attained if the Asian pieces were marketed through one of the big three houses during an Asia Week sale.
Check out these three bowls, $26,000! I wonder if that includes premium.
@steve Those bowls are another example of how modern old ceramics look, would fit nicely in a mid-century modern interior as a simple accent piece. There is a cong vase on opening page of Bidamount, that looks out of place on the old style wooden stand, it would look very fine on a George Nakishima piece of furniture.
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