Glazed earthenware marbled cup, the rounded sides rising from a short, slightly splayed foot-ring to a gently flared rim, with a single loop handle to one side. The buff-coloured and dark brown layers of clay are twisted and folded to produce the marbled pattern. The cup is covered all over with an amber glaze stopping irregularly near the foot and exposing the buff earthenware body on the underside.
Provenance:
Private collection, Japan (1980).
Masao Iketani, Japan (1990 - 2010).
Similar examples:
Oriental Ceramics, The World’s Great Collections, volume 9, Tokyo, 1982, number 37 for a cup with a ring handle, formerly in the Anders Hellstrom Collection, now in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm.
Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, Zui to no bijutsu, (Arts of the Sui and Tang Dynasties), Osaka, 1976, page 18, fig. 1-142.
For a marbled cup without a handle see Cao Yin ed., Tang, Treasures from the Silk Road Capital, Sydney, 2016, number 64.
Marbled wares (jiaotai) make an appearance in Tang ceramics, primarily in wares intended for burial. It is possible that the inspiration for them included imported marbled glass, known in China from at least the Eastern Han period (25 - 220 AD).1 Shards of marbled ware have been found at the Tang dynasty Huangye kiln site at Gongyi, Henan province.2 Many surviving examples of marbled ceramics are small in scale, including cups, bowls, dishes and boxes, although the technique does appear very rarely on sculptural figures. Two well-known examples of equestrians made from marbled clay were found in the tomb (dated 706) of Prince Yide, Qianxian, Shaanxi province.3
This marbled clay effect was produced by mixing two kinds of clay – usually a pale and a darker colour together and then forming the vessel from the mixture. The present example is unusual in that it combines three colours - buff, red and dark brown. After the vessel was formed, it was usually covered with a transparent lead glaze in straw or amber tones, or more rarely, a lead green glaze, and then fired.
A different technique to achieve the marbled effect was also used, referred to by Watt, op. cit., as ‘marbled glaze’ (jiaoyou). This was attained by using different coloured clay slips to create a marbled effect. For instance, a vessel would be made in light- coloured clay and covered with a white slip over which thin lines of a much darker
slip would be trailed. A brush or tool would be drawn through the liquid slips to create the rippling marbled patterns. Yet another method of surface application to attain the marbled effect involved mixing different coloured clay, forming it into a long tubular or other shape, and slicing off thin cross-section layers, which could be applied to the leather-hard surface of an object, like a veneer.
1 James C. Y. Watt et al., China Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD, New York, 2004, catalogue number 13 for a 1st-3rd century marbled glass bottle, probably Roman, excavated from an Eastern Han tomb in Luoyang.
2 Wang Liying, ‘The Ancient Chinese Ceramics Research Society, (The China Society of Ancient Ceramics)’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, volume 69, 2004 - 2005, London, 2006, page 19, figure 2.
3 James C. Y. Watt et al., China Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD, New York, 2004, catalogue number 197 for one of the figures, where the marbled pattern includes the horse’s face and mane, the saddle and the rider’s trousers and shoes.