宋代筆記 vol.166 波士頓美術館：宋代耀州窯淨瓶 - Museum Fine Arts Boston, Yaozhou Celadon Kundika Vase, Charles B. Hoyt Collection, Northern Song Dynasty
宋代耀州窯淨瓶，來自Charles B. Hoyt的收藏。存世可參考另一件2016年蘇富比香港售出548萬港元的同款，瓶頸有修。
北宋 耀州窯青釉刻花淨瓶
Kundika bottle, Yaozhou ware
Northern Song dynasty, 11th–12th century
1933 年 2 月 20 日由 Charles B. Hoyt 借展波士頓美術館，1939 年 9 月 7 日退還。Hoyt 1949 年去世，全藏遺贈該館，此瓶 1950 年入帳，編號 50.942。
淨瓶，梵語軍持（kundika），僧侶隨身貯水、灑淨之器。《敕修百丈清規》所謂「淨瓶，梵語軍遲，此云瓶，常貯水隨身，用以淨手」，即此。敦煌五代、宋初觀音圖裡，菩薩常以兩指拈頸部盤沿，使瓶懸空，故此類器頸細長、中段出圓盤式凸稜，口作收束的管狀。金屬與瓷胎的完整軍持，肩部多另置短流，以便注水；唐代三彩和白瓷、宋代定窯白瓷淨瓶有帶流一系。波士頓這件淨瓶沒有肩流，形制更近畫裡被拈在指間的聖水瓶。
耀州在五代已試燒此形。銅川黃堡五代地層只見一件高浮雕刻花殘器，見《五代黃堡窯址》（北京，1997）。入宋以後，黃堡宋地層同類器也只出殘片八件，著錄於《宋代耀州窯址》（北京，1998）圖版 78 及頁 294、296 線圖，其中一件紋飾接近、缺上部，另有一件口頸殘段可對。直立器拉坯分節、粘接、刻花、占窯位，損耗都高，耀州量產的是碗盤，瓶類本來就少。完整器能留下來的，因此極稀。
2016 年蘇富比香港 Pilkington 收藏拍出一件北宋耀州青釉刻牡丹淨瓶，高 21.9 厘米，估價 50–70 萬港元，成交 548 萬港元。
藏家
Charles Bain Hoyt（1889–1949），生於威斯康辛 Kenosha。父 James J. Hoyt 為南北戰爭聯邦軍上校，家族追溯至神學家 Jonathan Edwards。二十歲隨父母到日本，從此以東方陶瓷為本業；終身未婚，無其他職業，收藏即其一生。約 1910 年起專收中國早期陶瓷，正值庚子以後墓葬物開始流出的數年。1920 年把早年浮世繪在紐約 Walpole Galleries 售出，此後重心全在唐、宋陶瓷。
他先居紐約，後定居劍橋 Brattle Street，介於 Episcopal Theological School 與 Craigie House 之間；晚年亦與緬因 Camden 有關。1940 年起任波士頓美術館亞洲藝術部 Visiting Committee 委員，期間多次捐贈、出借。這件淨瓶 1933–1939 年的借展，即在此段。1949 年去世，全藏連同遺產一部分遺贈該館，與 Denman Waldo Ross、William Sturgis Bigelow、Weld、Spaulding 兄弟並列為亞洲部主要捐贈人。瑞士宅邸出售所得 86,238 美元於 1950 年撥入，供亞洲藝術購藏。
1950 年《Archives of Asian Art》記此遺贈逾 1,400 件。中國部分約 868 件，其中陶瓷 700 餘件：唐 176、宋 277，漢 43、明 58、清 97，另有青銅約 55、繪畫若干，並含高麗陶瓷。1952 年 2 月 13 日至 3 月 30 日紀念展，目錄由 Robert Treat Paine, Jr. 編，選展約 800 件。正式圖錄為曾憲七（Hsien-ch’i Tseng）、Robert Paul Dart 所編兩卷：卷一 1964 年，新石器至唐及西伯利亞青銅；卷二 1972 年，遼、宋、元。淨瓶即卷二圖版 49。
Hoyt 的眼光偏在唐、宋，不追逐明清官窯的完整與紋章。這件高僅 21.8 厘米的耀州淨瓶能在 1930 年代入其手、並在遺贈後進入正式圖錄，與他收早期北方青瓷的取向一致。
館藏 | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
編號 | 50.942 |
質地 | 炻器，灰胎，橄欖綠青釉 |
尺寸 | 通高 21.8 厘米，寬 6.8 厘米 |
現況 | Not on view |
入藏 | Bequest of Charles Bain Hoyt — Charles Bain Hoyt Collection |
著錄 | Tseng Hsien-ch’i and Robert Paul Dart, The Charles B. Hoyt Collection in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, vol. II: Chinese Art: Liao, Sung, and Yüan Dynasties, Boston, 1972, pl. 49 |
Kundika bottle
Yaozhou ware, Northern Song dynasty, 11th–12th century
Stoneware with olive-green celadon glaze over a gray body
H. 21.8 cm, W. 6.8 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 50.942
Bequest of Charles Bain Hoyt — Charles Bain Hoyt Collection
Not on view
Lent by Charles B. Hoyt, 20 February 1933; returned 7 September 1939. Bequeathed with the rest of the collection after his death in 1949 and accessioned in 1950.
A kundika is the Buddhist water flask, Sanskrit kuṇḍikā, Chinese 軍持 or 淨瓶, kept for ablution. From the Five Dynasties onward, Guanyin is often shown dangling just such a bottle between two fingers, the disc flange at the neck serving as the purchase. Metal and ceramic kundikas more often have a short spout on the shoulder for filling — the Ding white ware bottles are of that type. The Boston vase has no spout. Its tall waisted neck, disc flange and tapering tubular mouth follow the form carried in the paintings.
Yaozhou had already tried the shape in the Five Dynasties: a single high-relief fragment from the Huangpu kilns is published in Wudai Huangbao yaozhi (Beijing, 1997). Song strata at the same site produced only eight fragments of related form (Songdai Yaozhou yaozhi, Beijing, 1998, pl. 78; p. 294, fig. 149: 8–10; p. 296, fig. 150). Upright vessels were costly in throwing, luting, carving and kiln space, and the kilns’ ordinary output was bowls and dishes. Complete examples are correspondingly rare.
The only other complete bottle of this form on record in 2016 was the carved peony kundika from the Pilkington collection, 21.9 cm high, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong for HK$5,480,000 against an estimate of 500,000–700,000. The catalogue treats the Hoyt bottle as its sole comparable, of similar size but independently designed: on the Boston piece the flower band is narrow, and the body below is filled with two rows of petal panels, one ascending and one descending. Tseng and Dart, vol. II, pl. 49.
The clay and glaze are the Northern Song Yaozhou standard. After the Huangpu kilns shifted from wood to coal, the glaze moved from the bluer Five Dynasties tone to an olive green; it pools dark in the carved lines and stays lighter on the raised ground. The foot is unglazed.
Charles Bain Hoyt (1889–1949) was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, son of Colonel James J. Hoyt, a Union officer, and a descendant of Jonathan Edwards. Taken to Japan at twenty, he made East Asian ceramics his occupation; he never married and followed no profession. From about 1910 he collected early Chinese pottery, in the years when tomb material began to leave China. In 1920 he sold his Japanese prints at Walpole Galleries, New York. He lived in New York, then on Brattle Street in Cambridge, and was associated later with Camden, Maine. From 1940 he sat on the Visiting Committee of the MFA’s Department of Asiatic Art, and lent and gave regularly; the 1933–1939 loan of this bottle belongs to that period.
At his death in 1949 he left the collection and part of his estate to the museum, ranking with Ross, Bigelow, Weld and the Spauldings among the department’s principal benefactors. Sale of his Swiss house brought $86,238 to the museum in 1950 for Asiatic purchases. The bequest numbered over 1,400 objects; the Chinese portion was about 868, including more than 700 ceramics (176 Tang, 277 Song). A memorial exhibition of some 800 pieces was held from 13 February to 30 March 1952, catalogued by Robert Treat Paine, Jr. The scholarly catalogue, by Hsien-ch’i Tseng and Robert Paul Dart, appeared in two volumes (1964, 1972). The kundika is plate 49 of the second.
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