PROVENANCE:
Private Asian Collection

A Xing White-Glazed Quartrefoil Dish
with “Ying”Mark on The Bottom

As one of the most famous kilns in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the Xing Kiln was best known for its production of white porcelain. It was recorded that the kiln's was located in North China's Hebei Province, starting production during the late Northern Dynasty period. It reached peak production during the Mid Tang period and declined from the late Tang period, reaching its end in Yuan Dynasty. The Xing white porcelain consisted of three types, namely the coarse, the ordinary, and the fine. The coarse type has yellow-white paste cover with a layer of white slip before glazing; the ordinary type is whiter in the cover and uses less white slip; the fine one has more fine grained and more whitish paste. Hence, there is no need to add a layer of white slip. According to the relevant archaeological excavations, the Xing fine white porcelain were mainly discovered in the ruins of palaces and temples in the location of ancient time Chang’an, such as Daming Palace, Qinglong Temple and Ximing Temple, some of them bearing the mark of “ying” (盈) or “hanlin” (翰林) on the bottom. Compared with fine white porcelain, much more amount of the coarse and ordinary types have been evacuated, which means that during Tang Dynasty, Xing white porcelain was so popular that both the rich and the poor used it.

Xing white porcelain demonstrates the peak of the porcelain production of Tang Dynasty. Wares were made for the Imperial palace as tributes from provinces. It is now a generally accepted view that those wares with the “ying” mark are related with the “Da Ying Ku” of the palace, recorded in New Book of Tang and Old Book of Tang as “Bai Bao Da Ying Ku” which held the largest quantity of precious objects in the palace. So far, among the discovered wares with “ying” mark, the most commonly seen ones are bowls, with others such as handled ewers, boxes, and jars.

This dish mimics the shapes of gold and silver ware, with a folded rim and an oval shaped high round foot. Four indented corners and four sides of the dish are decorated with patterns of albizia flowers in a form similar to relief. The dish is covered overall in a white glaze except for the foot, with a “ying”mark on the bottom side. This piece of Xing ware delicately combines the shape of middle Asian gold and silver ware with the special texture of porcelain, showing a high possibility of it being an object of the Tang Dynasty court.