 UNGLAZED POTTERY EARTH SPIRIT Current and Past Exhibitions
Catalogue no. 12.UNGLAZED POTTERY EARTH SPIRITCHINATANG DYNASTY, 618 – 907H. 54 CMS, 21 INSA dynamic, unglazed pottery earth spirit, superbly carved in a rampant posture of defiance, with his right hand raised and his left grappling with a poisonous toad, the ferocious looking guardian beast sporting long flame like spikes all along its spine rising above a face with bulging eyes and curly beard, its muscular body and legs suppressing the movement of a supine boar at his feet, the whole group resting on a rock said to represent the Buddhist celestial mountain, Mount Sumeru, finely painted pigments to the chest and lower body in the form of large leafy white flowerheads remaining. Earth spirits were placed in pairs inside the entrance of a tomb acting as guardian beasts. Early, Sui dynasty examples were simply modelled but by the 8th century of the Tang dynasty, as is seen here, the expressions and accoutrements had become more exaggerated. For a closely related example see page 53, plate 42, J. Baker, Seeking Immortality, Santa Ana, California, 1996. See also number 152 in Selected Tang Tomb Figurines Excavated in Shaanxi Province, Beijing, 1958. Age verified by Oxford thermoluminescence test.
|  Two handled jade cup
Two handled jade cup.Chinese, 17th/18th century.Length: 12.5 cm, 4 7/8 inches.A small round jade cup of archaic form, the pierced handles carved as stylized dragons, their faces appearing towards the top, the exterior of the cup decorated with small circular scrolls, the jade an even celadon tone.Provenance: Private Collection, originally purchased from John Sparks Ltd.
|  Glazed Terracotta Relief depicting Mara's daughters Current and Past Exhibitions
Terracotta Relief.Burma, Pegu, possibly from the Shwe-gu-gyi pagoda.Late 15th century.H. 47 cm, 18 ½ ins; W. 35 cm, 13 ¾ ins.Mounted in an old wooden frame.A terracotta relief glazed with cream, green and brown and depicting two goddesses (devis), perhaps the daughters of Mara, one holding the other by the arm; an inscription along the top.Provenance:Formerly in the collection of Lieutenant-General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers (1827-1900) until around 1970.Thereafter in a private English collection.The southern Burmese city of Pegu (ancient Hamsavati) was one of the capitals of the western Mon Kingdom. One of the most powerful Mon rulers was Dhammaceti (r 1462-92) who erected a series of monuments in 1479 commemorating the seven weeks of the Buddha’s sojourn at Bodhgaya- the place where he attained enlightenment. The central monument is the Shwe-gu-gyi pagoda, now much rebuilt and altered, and before it is a brick shrine built to mark week five when the three daughters of Mara- lord of the Realm of Desires- appeared before the Buddha to seduce him with earthly pleasures. Many of the glazed reliefs from the Mara shrine are now missing and it seems plausible, given the provenance of this piece that it came from the structure itself. Pegu reliefs have been widely copied and authentic, provenanced examples are therefore exceptionally rare.For two closely related images, in the Victoria and Albert and San Francisco museums respectively, see no. 21 in J. Lowry, Burmese Art, H.M.S.O., London 1974 and fig. 295 in M. Girard-Geslan et al., Art of Southeast Asia, H.N. Abrams inc., New York, 1994. The dimensions of the first example are almost identical.
|  BLUE GLAZED POTTERY JAR AND COVER Current and Past Exhibitions
6 BLUE GLAZED POTTERY JAR AND COVER.CHINA, HENAN AREA.TANG DYNASTY, 618 - 907 AD.H. 15.5 CMS, 6 1/8 INS. A blue-glazed pottery jar and cover of well-rounded ovoid form with a flared neck and a flat foot, the shaped cover with pointed knop, the earthenware body covered in a deep cobalt-blue glaze pooling around the base, the inside rim glazed blue, the interior thinly applied with a cream coloured glaze.The intense blue of this vessel derives from cobalt, imported from Persia and introduced to China in the 8th century. These glazes were sometimes applied over a white slip to enhance the purity and brilliance of the colours.For an identical vase with a similarly rich cobalt glaze in the Collection of the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, see plate 133, page 182 in The Silk Road and The World of Xuanzong, Exhibition catalogue, Nara Prefectural Museum of Art, June 12 - August 8, 1999. Another vase decorated with a green glaze is illustrated as plate 226, page 138 in R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Volume One, Azimuth Editions, 1994. Age verified by Oxford thermoluminescence test, certificate no. C199t80.Provenance: From the collection of a titled English lady. Purchased from Spink and Son Ltd - illustrated as catalogue no. 38 in Treasures from the Silk Road: Devotion, Conquest and Trade along Asia’s highways, Spink, 1999.
|  A small black terracotta piggy bank
A small black terracotta piggy bank with a humorous face. Eastern Javanese, Majapahit period, circa 15th century.Length: 15 cm, 6 ins.Price: £1,250.A long tradition of trade between China and Java culminated with the establishment of a trading colony in 1297. The Chinese were subsequently responsible for the first regular use of coins in Java, a practice that became widespread by the 15th century. During the 14th and 15th centuries, large numbers of terracotta rams, turtles, frogs and pigs were made, all provided with a slot in the back for the insertion of copper coins. Pigs were particularly popular because of their association with prosperity and were modelled with great care, usually wearing heavy necklaces and consisting of short, squat legs supporting great fat bodies. Elephants are rare. Javanese money-boxes were unlikely to have been owned by individuals and probably had a ritual function, attached to household or village shrines.
|  A red terracotta piggy bank
A red terracotta piggy bank with a smiling face and a bell and chain around his neck.Eastern Javanese, Majapahit period, circa 15th century.Length: 23 cm, 9 ins. A long tradition of trade between China and Java culminated with the establishment of a trading colony in 1297. The Chinese were subsequently responsible for the first regular use of coins in Java, a practice that became widespread by the 15th century. During the 14th and 15th centuries, large numbers of terracotta rams, turtles, frogs and pigs were made, all provided with a slot in the back for the insertion of copper coins. Pigs were particularly popular because of their association with prosperity and were modelled with great care, usually wearing heavy necklaces and consisting of short, squat legs supporting great fat bodies. Elephants are rare. Javanese moneyboxes were unlikely to have been owned by individuals and probably had a ritual function, attached to household or village shrines.
|  A brown terracotta piggy bank
A brown terracotta piggy bank in the form of a boar with tusks, a fat body and furrowed brow.Eastern Javanese, Majapahit period, 15th century.Length: 24 cm (9 ½ inches).Height: 13.5 cm (5 ¼ inches).A long tradition of trade between China and Java culminated with the establishment of a trading colony in 1297. The Chinese were subsequently responsible for the first regular used of coins in Java, which became widespread by the 15th century. During the 14th and 15th centuries, large numbers of terracotta rams, turtles, frogs and pigs were made, all provided with a slot in the back for the insertion of copper coins. Pigs were particularly popular because of their association with prosperity and were modelled with great care, usually wearing heavy necklaces and consisting of short, squat legs supporting great fat bodies. Javanese money-boxes were unlikely to have been owned by individuals and probably had a ritual function, attached to households or village shrines.
|  A blackish-brown terracotta piggy bank
G019.8.A blackish-brown terracotta piggy bank of squat and corpulent form, the face humorous and smiling, a bell and chain around his neck.Eastern Javanese, Majapahit period, circa 15th century.Length: 34 cm, 13 ½ ins.A long tradition of trade between China and Java culminated with the establishment of a trading colony in 1297. The Chinese were subsequently responsible for the first regular use of coins in Java, a practice that became widespread by the 15th century. During the 14th and 15th centuries, large numbers of terracotta rams, turtles, frogs and pigs were made, all provided with a slot in the back for the insertion of copper coins. Pigs were particularly popular because of their association with prosperity and were modelled with great care, usually wearing heavy necklaces and consisting of short, squat legs supporting great fat bodies. Elephants are rare. Javanese money-boxes were unlikely to have been owned by individuals and probably had a ritual function, attached to household or village shrines.
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