宋代筆記 vol.165 大英博物館：宋代磁州窯綠釉剔刻牡丹紋梅瓶，OCS尤摩弗帕勒斯舊藏 - British Museum, Cizhou Green Glaze Sgraffiato Meiping, Eumorfopoulos Collection, Song Dynasty
這是一件宋代磁州窯綠釉剔刻（Sgraffiato）牡丹紋梅瓶，高 39.8 厘米，腹徑 21.3 厘米，現藏倫敦大英博物館，館藏號 1936.1012.175。
器為炻胎。先在器表施白色化妝土，再於白地上劃出纏枝牡丹，罩一層無色透明釉；其上又加施一層低溫鉛綠釉。白地劃花與綠釉疊加，使牡丹枝葉在翠色中隱現，既保留磁州窯劃花的線條節奏，又因鉛綠釉而別開生面。磁州窯中的綠釉品種較爲罕見，是嚴肅藏家、博物館爭相追逐的品種，大英博物館提及此器之器形、紋飾與釉色，均可在河北邯鄲觀臺窯址找到對應。
梅瓶小口、短頸、豐肩、斂腹，宋時多作貯酒器；又作花器，宋人用於插梅，遂以「梅瓶」名之；又有存放經書的經瓶一說。磁州窯並非五大名窯之列（五大名窯概念是名人定義），卻是北方民窯中生命力最長、裝飾手法最富變化的體系。觀臺窯作為磁州窯的核心窯場之一，宋金之際盛行劃花、剔花、白地黑花，亦燒造相對少見的綠釉器。完整綠釉劃花梅瓶傳世不多，本件體量近四十厘米，在館藏與市場可比例中均屬大器。
此瓶 1936 年自大收藏家 George Eumorfopoulos（尤摩弗帕勒斯，1863–1939，東方陶瓷學會創始人）舊藏購入。尤氏為倫敦東方陶瓷學會（Oriental Ceramic Society）首任會長，其收藏在大蕭條後以優惠條件售予大英博物館與維多利亞與艾伯特博物館，成為二十世紀西方認識早期中國陶瓷的關鍵批次。2021 年，本件曾借展於 SOAS Brunei Gallery 的東方陶瓷學會百年展。
磁州窯綠釉剔刻牡丹紋梅瓶
時代：宋代（Song dynasty），約 11–12 世紀
窯口：磁州窯系（Cizhou-type Ware），河北邯鄲觀臺窯（Guantai / 館方拼寫 Guintai）
器型：梅瓶（meiping / vase）
館藏編號：1936,1012.175
網址物件號：A_1936-1012-175
部門：Asia
材質：炻器（stoneware）
技法：化妝土、劃刻、鉛釉（slipped; incised; lead-glazed）
尺寸：高 39.80 厘米；徑 21.30 厘米
入藏：1936 年購自 George Eumorfopoulos（尤摩弗帕勒斯）舊藏
現況：On display，Gallery 33, Display Case 29a, Section 1
著錄：Vainker 1991, Chinese Pottery and Porcelain: From Prehistory to the Present, p. 119, fig. 88
展覽：2021.10.14–12.11，倫敦 SOAS Brunei Gallery，Collectors, Curators, Connoisseurs: A Century of the Oriental Ceramic Society
This is a Song-dynasty Cizhou green-glazed sgraffiato meiping with peony design, 39.8 cm high and 21.3 cm in diameter. It is now in the British Museum, London (reg. no. 1936,1012.175).
The body is stoneware. A white slip was first applied to the surface; a peony scroll was then carved through the white ground and covered with a colourless glaze, over which a low-fired green lead glaze was added. The carved white slip and the green glaze work together: the peony stems and leaves emerge through the emerald tone, keeping the linear rhythm of Cizhou carving while the lead-green glaze gives the piece a character of its own. Green-glazed Cizhou wares are comparatively rare, and they are pursued by serious collectors and museums alike. The British Museum notes that the shape, decoration and colour of this vase can all be matched at the Guantai kiln site in Handan, Hebei.
A meiping has a small mouth, short neck, broad shoulders and a tapering body. In the Song period such jars were often used to store wine; they were also used as flower vessels, and because Song people placed prunus branches in them they came to be called “meiping” (plum vases). Another reading identifies them as jingping, jars for keeping scriptures. Cizhou was never ranked among the so-called Five Great Kilns — that ranking itself is a later connoisseurial construct — yet it was the longest-lived and most varied decorative tradition among the popular kilns of north China. Guantai was one of the core Cizhou kilns. In the Song and Jin periods it excelled in incising, sgraffiato and black-painted decoration on white slip, and it also fired the relatively uncommon green-glazed wares. Complete green-glazed carved meiping are scarce; at nearly forty centimetres, this example is a large piece among both museum holdings and market comparables.
The vase was purchased in 1936 from the collection of George Eumorfopoulos (1863–1939), founder of the Oriental Ceramic Society. As the Society’s first president, he assembled a collection that, after the Great Depression, was sold on favourable terms to the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, becoming a key group through which the twentieth-century West came to understand early Chinese ceramics. In 2021 the vase was shown in the Oriental Ceramic Society centenary exhibition at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS.
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