Yuan Longquan kiln appliqué drum nail lid jar
The height is 12.8 cm and the caliber is 13.5 cm
The shape of the body is drum-shaped, the mouth is slightly retracted, the abdomen is curved, the circle feet are upright, the upper and lower ends of the outer wall are decorated with drum nails for a week, the middle of the abdomen is pasted with peonies, chrysanthemums and other folded flowers, and the left and right sides are decorated with a pair of auxiliary heads. The saucer-shaped flat-edged lid is raised in the center, decorated with three groups of folded lotus flowers, and the center is placed in a guati-shaped fancy catcher. The tire color is white, slightly gray, the texture is relatively dense, the glaze is moist and moist, such as ice-like jade, the lid is partially cracked with ice, and the lips and feet are unglazed, showing a typical flint red.
The reason for introducing this small lid jar is not only that it has precise shape, exquisite ornamentation, pure glaze, excellent craftsmanship, and is a fine product, but also because the heirlooms of this type of vessel are really rare. The closest example is undoubtedly the "Southern Song Dynasty/YuanQing Magnetic Appliqué Peony Tang Cao Wen Wen Shen Bowl" treasured by the Jingjiatang Bunko Museum of Art in Japan, which is the most classic, which is large in size, with a diameter of 24.6 cm, and the lid is along the silver edge of the bag, which is exquisitely crafted. In addition, the Great David Foundation in the United Kingdom also has a similar collection, which is slightly smaller in size, 20.9 cm in diameter, and the workmanship is also more sophisticated, but the lid is missing. In addition, Christie's London auctioned a drum nail jar from the old collection of British collector Francis Golding (Auction, Lot: 1067) in 2015, with a diameter of 17.8 cm and a missing lid, which is inferior to the previous two cases. All three cases of drum nail jars are decorated with tangled flowers, and the floral patterns vary somewhat.
Jing Jia Tang Collection
Tangled branches peony pattern, petals are clear, delicately carved, rich in layers, leaves have size pitch, proper layout, branches gracefully stretched, very flexible
Collection of the Great Wade Foundation
Drum nails are tightly arranged. Tangled branches of peony pattern, flowers and leaves are slightly blurred.
Collection at Christie's London Auction in November 2015
Compared with the previous two cases of sparse branches and leaves, the flowers and leaves are reflected, and the tangled branches and floral patterns of the device are not only sparse and scattered, but also more flat.
Similar styles of appliqué tangled flowers or folded branches are also found in longquan celadon products such as phoenix tail zun and kiln in the same period.
Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Decal Folded Floral Pattern Furnace
The tangle style is a two-sided continuous pattern, can be vertical and horizontal, good coherence, fit the arc shape of the pull blank molding, the layout is very "worry-free"; the folding branch style is a single vertical type, although more flexible, but the layout should be "bothered", so that the piece of the furnace and the drum nail jar described in this article, its appliqué pattern, not only divided into different flower varieties such as lotus, chrysanthemum, and size interval, so as to avoid monotony. An artifact can be beautifully presented, seemingly natural and ingenuity.
A little attention to the proportion of the two will surely find that the number of folded branches and flowers is much less than that of the tangled flowers. For example, in this product, in many public and private collections at home and abroad, it is almost impossible to find examples of folded branches and flowers with the same style. However, relevant archaeological data indicate that fragments of such appliquéd drum nail pots have been excavated in the middle and late Yuan Dynasty strata around the Dayao area (see "Porcelain Excavated from the Longquan Dayao Fengdong Rock Kiln Site" page 60, Figure 21).
Left: This product
Right: Maple Cave Rock excavated drum nail tank residue caliber 12.8 cm
This piece of debris is very close to the type and size of this product, and the similarity of the pattern is particularly high, and the two should be products of the same period of Longquan kiln in the same period.
There is also a case of a small lid jar with a lotus petal pattern that comes out of the water of the South Korean Xin'an shipwreck, and its lid style is similar to this product.
South Korea's Singan shipwreck outlet small lid tank
As for the similar imitation war drum shape, there is also a kind of drum nail furnace in the Song and Yuan Longquan celadons (see Zhu Boqian's "Longquan Kiln Celadon", page 207, Figure 184 Yuan Dynasty Drum Nail Furnace, Longquan City Museum Collection). All of this shows the distinctive aesthetic characteristics of the times.
In addition, there is also a kind of drum nail lid jar similar to this product in the Longquan kiln, the body is also drum-shaped, and the drum nails, auxiliary heads and appliqué flowers are also decorated, the difference is that the lid and the tank body buckle in a drum pier style, such as the "Yuanqing Glazed Tangled Flower Dragon Pattern Chess Piece Jar" treasured by the Sichuan Museum. These drum nail jars are generally small in size, some of which have been handed down in pairs, and are also found in the Yaozhou kiln products of the Song Dynasty, and have been confirmed by archaeological data to be used as chess boxes. The use of war drums as a chess box style means that the game is like a battle, and the chess game is like a war game, reflecting the ancient people's concept that the art of war is general in chess. In contrast, this kind of lid jar is more decorative, or can be regarded as a derivative of the imitation war drum chess box, and its use is also likely to change.
Collection of Sichuan Museum