Harrington's Holiday Gift Auction this September

My Large Chinese Guangdong Meiping Jar

Ahhh, the feeling of having scored a major buy this year.  I managed to transact this really nice large Guangdong (or even Fujian) brownware for about $200.  Large antique ceramics this size are nowadays rare and difficult to find especially if it was sourced from backyard connections, or from a farm-to-table mode of transaction.  Most large Song dynasty stonewares are Meiping in design, such perfect shapes for any living room. Buying it from a primary source via one runner not only cuts down the value-added cost, it also gives the collector leeway for bargaining.

This is quite different from buying from a well-established antique dealer.  That dealer would definitely have a good idea on how valuable the item is, and knows the price range of its intended market.  Although bargaining can be done between collector and antique dealer, the amount being bargained would still be in the seller's favor.   Shops would sometimes have spectacular pieces, but the prices would be spectacular as well.   This jar would hover above $500-$600 in some shops I know.

The jar at hand is made with stone buff clay with an ochre glaze.  This is characteristic of brownware or stoneware jars from Guangdong or Guangzhou, China during the Song to the Yuan dyansties.  The design is made up of curvilinear lines on the widest part of the body, probably a vegetal motif like a vine.  The glaze is already eroded in some places perhaps due to the abrasive or acidic nature of the soil in which it was buried. Still, it's authentic and rustic nature appeals to me.

The thing that made me decide to get this was the fact that there is no restoration of any kind, no cracks, or missing parts.  It was in perfect albeit degraded condition.  As such, one must be pounce on the opportunity and never let it go.

So today, I texted my runner if his source has more jars like this, in this kind of condition. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

A Brown Guangdong Stoneware Meiping Jar No.2

A week ago, my other dealer caught me in a trap. She tempted me with a new item, presumably from a fresh dig, so fresh that according to her, it came only today from a mountain site north of Montemayor.  With it were several large shards from a broken dragon jar that lay in a pile in the shop.  It was typical 15th-16th century southern Chinese Meiping or Mei Ping vessel.  By Meiping, I meant that the shape followed the eponymous style- narrow base, wide curved shoulders, narrow neck.
 

A meiping (Chinese: 梅瓶; pinyin: méipíng; literally: "plum vase") is a Chinese vase shape.It is traditionally used to display branches of plum blossoms.The meiping was first made of stoneware during the Tang dynasty (618-907).It was originally used as a wine vessel, but since the Song dynasty (960–1279) it became popular as a plum vase and got its name "meiping". It is tall, with a narrow base spreading gracefully into a wide body, followed by a sharply-rounded shoulder, a short and narrow neck, and a small opening. -Wikipedia

The brown Guangdong stoneware jar is really beautiful- rustic and free from any restorations.  I bought it for $75 knowing that such prize catch rarely do come by- especially that considerable clay dirt was still stuck inside.  My dealer said there might be gold in it, of course I took that comment with a kilo of salt.  If this were all the burial effects (one small and one large jar), then the one interred may not have been a very rich person.

I went home and cleaned out the dirt which interestingly yielded nothing but, dirt.  The glaze has already deteriorated to the point that only the upper 1/4th of the jar still contains the brownish color.  The brownish glaze points to Guangdong in origin. I'm not sure if this could be Vietnamese, but from the glaze to the shape, it all points to Guangdong.

These small monthly additions really do add up to a nice grouping.  I hope more brownware will crop up in the near future.

Happy Collecting!

A Guangdong Stonewar Jar

This jar is part of a three-piece lot from my antique runner/dealer. He got this from the hinterlands of Infanta, another province north of mine.

This was the smallest of the three and I love the table-top quality of the piece. What's important is that it should be free of any restorations and the piece must be intact.  The glaze has degraded to the point that only the lugs and the rim has some specks of light olive-green glaze (more like ochre brown to me).  This must be due to the abrasive and acidic nature of the soil in which it was buried.

The ceramic itself looks like it was fired from a Guangdong kiln in southern China probably during the Song or Yuan dynasty.  It has similar characteristics with other brownware or stoneware pieces attributed to Southern Song.  Although I saw a couple of pieces in Cynthia Valdez's book which attributed them to Vietnam, I feel that the firing, the color of the glaze and the design still points to China.

Although not as desired by collectors as a Song Celadon ceramic, the rustic look makes it a stellar piece in anyone's living room or office.

There's a very similar jar over at the Freer & Sackler Galleries (Smithsonian) which pinpoints such wares to Guangdong province during the Song dynasty.

Jar with four horizontal lugs

• Stoneware with iron glaze
• 18.4 x 16 cm
• Quanzhou ware
• 12th-14th century, Southern Song or Yuan dynasty
• Origin: Quanzhou kilns, Quanzhou, Fujian province, China
• Gift of Osborne and Gratia Hauge, and Victor and Takako Hauge
• s2005.39