Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

The Barlow Collection

A select catalogue of the Barlow collection of Chinese Ceramics, Bronzes and Jades by the University of Sussex (published Sussex, 2006).

The Barlow Collection by the University of Sussex

Publications online: 456 objects

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Cizhou ware bowl with lotus decoration

  • loan
  • Literature notes

    The bowl is cut down, lacking 1 or 2 cm at the rim, and is now bound in copper. The design would originally have been encircled by a plain white band.

    The piece is heavily potted, with rounded conical sides and a splayed, straight-cut foot. The inside is carved through the white slip with two lotus blooms, two leaves and some foliate motifs, all on a combed background and enclosed by a horizontal line at the rim. The outside is plain, the yellowish beige stoneware is exposed at the lowest part, foot and base. The centre shows a ring of radiating spur marks suggesting that the piece was fired in a stack. There is an accidental unglazed patch below the rim outside.

    A similar piece from the Cizhou kiln site at Guantai in Handan county, Hebei province, is published in the exhibition catalogue Freedom of Clay and Brush Through Seven Centuries in Northern China: Tz’u-chou Type Wares, 960-1600 A.D., Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1980-81, fig.76).
  • Details

    Associated place
    AsiaChina Cizhou kiln-sites (place of creation)
    Date
    12th century (1101 - 1200)
    Jin Dynasty (1115 - 1234)
    Material and technique
    stoneware, thrown, covered in white slip, and with incised, combed and sgraffito decoration cut through the transparent glaze; bowl cut down; glazed base; copper rim
    Dimensions
    6 cm (height)
    19 cm (diameter)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Lent by the Sir Alan Barlow Collection Trust.
    Accession no.
    LI1301.214
  • Further reading

    University of Sussex, and Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Barlow Collection, supervised by Regina Krahl, Maurice Howard, and Aiden Leeves (Sussex: University of Sussex, 2006), no. C203

Glossary (3)

glaze, slip, stoneware

  • glaze

    Vitreous coating applied to the surface of a ceramic to make it impermeable or for decorative effect.

  • slip

    A semi-fluid clay applied to a ceramic before glazing either to coat the surface or for decorative effect.

  • stoneware

    Ceramic material made of clay which is fired to a temperature of c.1200-1300⁰c and is often buff or grey in colour.

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • The Barlow Collection by the University of Sussex

    The Barlow Collection

    The bowl is cut down, lacking 1 or 2 cm at the rim, and is now bound in copper. The design would originally have been encircled by a plain white band.

    The piece is heavily potted, with rounded conical sides and a splayed, straight-cut foot. The inside is carved through the white slip with two lotus blooms, two leaves and some foliate motifs, all on a combed background and enclosed by a horizontal line at the rim. The outside is plain, the yellowish beige stoneware is exposed at the lowest part, foot and base. The centre shows a ring of radiating spur marks suggesting that the piece was fired in a stack. There is an accidental unglazed patch below the rim outside.

    A similar piece from the Cizhou kiln site at Guantai in Handan county, Hebei province, is published in the exhibition catalogue Freedom of Clay and Brush Through Seven Centuries in Northern China: Tz’u-chou Type Wares, 960-1600 A.D., Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1980-81, fig.76).
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Object information may not accurately reflect the actual contents of the original publication, since our online objects contain current information held in our collections database. Click on 'buy this publication' to purchase printed versions of our online publications, where available, or contact the Jameel Study Centre to arrange access to books on our collections that are now out of print.

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