拍賣筆記 vol.485 蘇富比香港2016：548萬港元售出，北宋耀州窯淨瓶，羅傑琵金頓舊藏 - Sotheby’s Hong Kong, A Carved ‘Yaozhou’ Kundika Vase, Pilkington Collection, Northern Song Dynasty, Sold for 5.48m HKD
羅傑琵金頓（Roger Pilkington）舊藏，1935年倫敦藝展。548萬港元售出後，曾在北京保利再售出一次，今次將在香港保利拍賣再度拍賣，10年間易手3次，投資意味較濃。品相上，頸部與器肩相接處有一處約 0.7 x 0.3 公分疑似剝落（Flake）的痕跡，現已進行修補；此外，無釉足圈（圈足）邊緣有一處「C」字形的淺剝落痕，並伴隨其他輕微的窯疵（燒製瑕疵)。1935年倫敦藝展展品，存世量非常少，可供公開參考的只有波士頓美術館一例。品相上雖然有問題，但應該以帶有寬容的眼光去看待這類藝術品背後的歷史和審美價值。（SACA觀察，2026.10.3）
上手圖：
北宋耀州窯淨瓶
Lot 5, An exquisite and rare carved ‘Yaozhou’ kundika, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); ; 21.9 cm, 8 5/8 in. Estimate 500,000 — 700,000 HKD (58,472 - 81,860 EUR). Lot sold 5,480,000 HKD.
來源：
Charles E. Russell(1866-1960年)收藏
倫敦蘇富比1960年7月12日，編號156(£600)
Bluett & Sons Ltd，倫敦，1960年(£600)
羅傑琵金頓(1928-69年)收藏， 自1960年 (£600)
展覽：
《International Exhibition of Chinese Art》，皇家藝術學院，倫敦，1935-36年，編號1347
《Celadon Wares》，東方陶瓷協會，倫敦，1947年，編號95
出版：
R.L. Hobson、Bernard Rackham 及 William King，《Chinese Ceramics in Private Collections》， 倫敦，1931年，圖338
Roy Davids 及 Dominic Jellinek，《Provenance. Collectors, Dealers and Scholars: Chinese Ceramics in Britain and America》， Great Haseley，2011年，圖版133 (中)
品相：整體狀況良好，惟頸部與器肩相接處有一處約 0.7 x 0.3 公分疑似剝落（Flake）的痕跡，現已進行修補；此外，無釉足圈（圈足）邊緣有一處「C」字形的淺剝落痕，並伴隨其他輕微的窯疵（燒製瑕疵)。
觀音淨水瓶
康蕊君
本淨水瓶為佛家寶器，造型獨特，端麗雅緻。或因器形繁複，需分段獨立拉坯塑形，再組合成器，製作耗時費力，從未廣製於中國各窰，傳世僅只一例可比。
自五代（907-960年）起，佛教畫像多繪觀音菩薩手持淨水瓶，瓶頸凸棱，易於攜帶。參考數幅十世紀絲路敦煌石窟麻紙、絹或紙本畫作，繪觀音持淨水瓶，兩指輕捻瓶頸棱下方，淨水瓶彷彿輕如無物，例見巴黎或倫敦：Jacques Giès 編，《Les arts de l’Asie centrale. La collection Paul Pelliot du musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet》，巴黎，1995年，卷1，圖版54、66、68-1、71、72-1、73-1；或參考 Roderick Whitfield 及Anne Farrer，《Caves of the Thousand Buddhas. Chinese Art from the Silk Route》，倫敦，1990年，圖版 12）。畫中觀音手勢獨特，突顯此瓶之重要性。
上述畫作，多繪金、銀或銅製淨水瓶，然而出自該時期之金屬淨水瓶作例極其罕見。金屬或陶胎淨水瓶，瓶肩多另有帶蓋瓶嘴，作注水用，可參考河北定窰白瓷例。
本瓶製於陝西耀州窰，五代時期，陝西盛產青瓷，或因浙江越窰出產優質青瓷，因而受啟發，故亦創製青瓷。耀州窰青釉瓷，技術、紋飾皆獨樹一格，匠心獨運，創思盡見，從不流於模仿。本品器型，似為耀州窰實驗多時之製品，然而始終成器極少，僅見一殘片重組例，上刻高浮雕紋飾屬該時期典型，出土自五代窰址，見《五代黃堡窰址 》，北京，1997年，彩色圖版6，圖2；圖版37，圖4；頁82，圖 45: 5；及頁288，圖165下（圖一）。同期並無完整作例。
北宋耀州窰，青瓷冠絕全國，風格獨特，適合大批燒製。茶具、食具等，紋飾或雕刻、或模造，產量甚大，不僅流通中國，更遠銷海外，由出土文物可見，埃及福斯塔出土者尤為佳例。同代出品亦見於河南各地，寶豐汝窰亦有出產。
除大批燒製之青瓷外，耀州窰亦有創製器型、紋飾繁複之珍品，精巧獨特，費工耗時且難於仿製。直立式瓷器，製作及加飾較為費時，燒製時佔窰中位置甚多，且燒造困難，故耀州窰鮮有出品，本瓶即為其中罕例。現存文獻僅記載一例可比，現屬波士頓美術館 Charles B. Hoyt 收藏，製於同期，尺寸相近，唯紋飾有異，環繞瓶身花卉紋飾較窄，其下再有兩道花瓣紋，一道朝上，一道朝下，故該瓶與本品並非成對，應屬獨立設計，見 Tseng Hsien-ch’i 及 Robert Paul Dart，《The Charles B. Hoyt Collection in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston》，波士頓，1964-72年，卷 II：《Chinese Art: Liao, Sung, and Yüan Dynasties》，圖版49（圖二）。
陝西銅川黃堡耀州窰宋代地層出土僅八件青瓷破片，器型或與本品相近，圖見《宋代耀州窰址》，北京，1998年，圖版78，圖3-6及頁 294，圖 149: 8-10及頁296，圖150: 1-3及 5-6，包括一例，紋飾相近，唯瓶口殘缺（圖版78，圖3），另有一例，瓶口相近（圖150: 5）；另比黑釉例，尺寸較小，彩色圖版13，圖4；圖版126，圖 1；頁426，圖210: 3。除出產大型三足爐可供廟宇用外，耀州窰鮮有燒製宗教禮器。
本品出自琵金頓雅蓄，由琵金頓購自著名藏家 Charles Ernest Russell （1866-1960年）。Russell 乃同代最具遠見藏家之一，曾收藏「大維德青花對瓶」其中一瓶，亦為元代青花及清朝御瓷鑑藏家，眼光獨到，領先同儕。其宋至清代收藏部份載於1931年R.L. Hobson出版文獻，其中數件由大維德爵士購入，現藏倫敦大英博物館，約六十多件在其身後售於倫敦蘇富比，多為宋代珍器。本瓶曾亮相1935年倫敦皇家學院 International Exhibition of Chinese Art 展覽，該展覽為歷來最重要之中國藝術品展，借展逾三千件珍品，來自全球各地，Russell本人亦借出16件。
圖一觀音菩薩，設色絹本，敦煌石窟17號（五代），斷代910年，大英博物館OA 1919.1-1.014 (Ch.liv.006)
圖二出處： 《五代黃堡窰址 》，北京，1997年，彩色圖版6，圖2；
圖三Tseng Hsien-ch’i 及Robert Paul Dart，《The Charles B. Hoyt Collection in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston》，波士頓，1964-72年，卷 II：《Chinese Art: Liao, Sung, and Yüan Dynasties》，圖版49。
AN EXQUISITE AND RARE CARVED ‘YAOZHOU’ KUNDIKA NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY
Estimate
500,000 - 700,000 HKD
Sold
5,480,000 HKD
stoneware
the slender baluster body gracefully potted with a tall waisted neck, elegantly rising to a disc-form flange and a tapering cylindrical mouth, the exterior exquisitely and freely carved with large peony blooms borne on meandering stems with broad leaves, all between lappet bands at the shoulder and the foot, the tapering tube-form mouth encircled by a spiral rib, covered overall in an olive-green glaze that pools to a deeper tone in the recessed areas, the foot unglazed, revealing the light grey ware
Provenance
Collection of Charles E. Russell (1866-1960).
Sotheby's London, 12th July 1960, lot 156 (£600).
Bluett & Sons Ltd, London, 1960 (£600).
Collection of Roger Pilkington (1928-69), from 1960 (£600).
Exhibited
International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935-36, cat. no. 1347 (illustrated in the catalogue).
Celadon Wares, The Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1947, cat. no. 95 (illustrated).
Literature
R.L. Hobson, Bernard Rackham and William King, Chinese Ceramics in Private Collections, London, 1931, fig. 338.
Roy Davids and Dominic Jellinek, Provenance. Collectors, Dealers and Scholars: Chinese Ceramics in Britain and America, Great Haseley, 2011, pl. 133 (centre).
Condition
Good condition except for a possible flake - a now touched up area of 0.7 by 0.3 cm to where the neck joins the shoulder, as well as another 'C'-shaped shallow flake to the edge of the unglazed footring and other minor firing irregularities.
Catalogue Note
A Bottle for Avalokitesvara
Regina Krahl
Buddhist holy water bottles (kundika) of this unusual, graceful shape never entered the regular repertoire of China’s ceramic kilns, probably because assembling the complex form from individually wheel-thrown sections proved too taxing a manufacturing process. Only one other ceramic bottle of this form appears to be recorded.
Bottles of this type are best known from images of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, Guanyin, who since the Five Dynasties’ period (907-960) was often depicted holding a bottle like this. The extended flange around the neck makes this vessel particularly suitable to be carried around. The deity’s elegant gesture of dangling the bottle effortlessly between two fingers, as if weightless, using the flange as support, can be admired in several 10th-century paintings on hemp, silk or paper from the Buddhist Cave Temples of Dunhuang on the Silk Route, for example, which are preserved in Paris or London (see, for example, Jacques Giès, ed., Les arts de l’Asie centrale. La collection Paul Pelliot du musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet, Paris, 1995, vol. 1, pls 54, 66, 68-1, 71, 72-1, 73-1; and Roderick Whitfield and Anne Farrer, Caves of the Thousand Buddhas. Chinese Art from the Silk Route, London, 1990, pl. 12). The Bodhisattva’s uncommon gesture duly highlights the bottle’s significance as a container of holy water.
Depicted in these paintings are most likely bottles of gold, silver or bronze, but it is extremely difficult to find a preserved metal example from that period. Holy-water kundika both of metal and stoneware more typically have an additional covered spout at the shoulder for filling, and ceramic versions of that form were produced, for example, by the Ding white-ware kilns of Hebei.
The present bottle was made at the Yaozhou kilns of Shaanxi province, which by the Five Dynasties’ period had become important purveyors of celadon wares, perhaps inspired by the success of the Yue celadon kilns of Zhejiang in south China. From the beginning, however, they developed their own techniques and designs, and created some of the most imaginative celadon wares ever made; and from the beginning, they seem to have experimented with the present shape, but perhaps with little success. Only a fragmentary bottle of this form with carved designs in high relief characteristic of that period, was recovered from the Five Dynasties’ remains of the kiln site, see Wudai Huangpu yaozhi/Excavations of the Five Dynasties Period Kiln-site at Huangpu in Tongchuan, Shaanxi, Beijing, 1997, col. pl. 6, fig. 2; pl. 37, fig. 4; p. 82, fig. 45: 5; and p. 288, fig. 165 bottom (fig. 1). No complete example appears to be preserved from that period.
By the Northern Song period (960-1127) the Yaozhou kilns had become the foremost manufactories of celadon wares in China, and had developed a style of their own, suitable for production on a large scale. Tea and food bowls and dishes with carved or moulded designs were made in considerable quantities, not only for the home market but also for export abroad, as excavations particularly at Fustat in Egypt have shown. Contemporary copies were made in various regions of Henan province, even by the Ru kilns of Baofeng.
Besides this output of celadons devoted to serial manufacture, however, the Yaozhou kilns created also small numbers of more labour-intensive, carefully individually crafted ceramics, which were not easily replicated, either in more complex forms or with more elaborate designs. The kilns produced very few upright shapes altogether, which are much more time-consuming to form and to decorate, take up much valuable kiln space, and are more likely to fail in the firing. The present piece is one of those rare creations. Only one comparable holy-water bottle appears to be recorded, from the Charles B. Hoyt Collection in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, probably made around the same time, but not an identical twin, both having been individually conceived. The Hoyt bottle is of similar size, but differs from the present piece in its decoration, the flower design being reduced to a narrow band and the space below filled with two rows of petal panels, one ascending, one descending; see Tseng Hsien-ch’i and Robert Paul Dart, The Charles B. Hoyt Collection in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 1964-72, vol. II: Chinese Art: Liao, Sung, and Yüan Dynasties, pl. 49 (fig. 2).
The Song strata of the Yaozhou kiln site at Huangpu district, Yao county, near Tongchuan in Shaanxi province, have brought to light only eight fragments of celadon vessels that may have been of similar form, as recorded in Songdai Yaozhou yaozhi/The Yaozhou Kiln Site of the Song Period, Beijing, 1998, pl. 78, figs. 3-6 and p. 294, fig. 149: 8-10, and p. 296, fig. 150: 1-3 and 5-6, including one with very similar design but lacking the top (pl. 78, fig. 3), and one similar top (fig. 150: 5); as well as a slightly smaller example with monochrome black glaze, col. pl. 13, fig. 4; pl. 126, fig. 1; and p. 426, fig. 210: 3. Except for some tripod incense burners large enough to be used in temples, the Yaozhou kilns otherwise rarely produced items intended for ritual use.
The Pilkington bottle comes from the famous collection of Charles Ernest Russell (1866-1960), one of the most far-sighted collectors of his time, one-time owner of one of the ‘David Vases’ and one of the first to appreciate Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) blue-and-white as well as Qing dynasty (1644-1911) imperial porcelain. His collection that ranged from the Song to the Qing dynasty was partly published by R.L. Hobson in 1931, several of his pieces ended up in the collection of Sir Percival David, now in the British Museum, London, and some sixty pieces, mainly of the Song dynasty, were sold at Sotheby’s London, upon his death. The present bottle was included in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art at the Royal Academy of Arts in London 1935, the most important exhibition of Chinese art ever mounted, with over 3000 international loans from around the world, to which Russell lent sixteen pieces.
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