YAOZHOU WARE BROWN-GLAZED VASE
NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY (960-1127)
12.8 cm high, 9 cm wide
The small vase is of oval shape, with straight sides tapering towards the food and rounded shoulders surmounted by a short, waisted neck with lipped mouth rim. The vase is covered inside and out with a rich persimmon-brown glaze, save for the lower foot and recessed base, which show the buff-coloured stoneware body.
Although the Yaozhou kilns in Shaanxi province specialised in green-glazed ceramics during the Northern Song dynasty, the potters also produced black and brown-glazed wares. Brown-glazed ceramics, sometimes referred to as persimmon-glazed wares, were probably inspired by contemporary brown lacquerware.
Small vases of the present type are rare and very few examples seem to have been published. For a pair of similar Yaozhou ware vases of roughly the same size, dated Northern Song dynasty, see Sotheby's, Fine Chinese Ceramics Bronzes and Works of Art, London 7 December 1993, lot 166. A further example is illustrated in R.L. Hobson, The George Eumorfopoulus Collection: Catalogue of the Chinese, Corean and Persian Pottery and Porcelain, 1925 - 1928, Vol. 2, pl. LV, no. B254.