Add to Collection

Add this item to an existing or new collection.
Harvard Art Museums
Incorrect Username, Email, or Password
This object does not yet have a description.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2006.170.271
Title
Ink palette with leaf-form legs
Other Titles
Original Language Title: 唐 三彩葉形足硯
Classification
Artists' Tools
Work Type
inkstand
Date
late 7th-early 8th century
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Tang dynasty, 618-907
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/188169

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Earthenware with three-color (sancai) lead glaze
Technique
Lead glaze
Dimensions
H. 4.6 x Diam. 8.9 cm (1 13/16 x 3 1/2 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, October 1999] sold; to Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation, Woodside, CA (1999-2006), partial gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2006.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Partial gift of the Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation and partial purchase through the Alpheus Hyatt Purchasing Fund
Accession Year
2006
Object Number
2006.170.271
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Description
Small ink palette of circular form with top flat surface surrounded by a deep reservoir, raised on ten small feet in the form of acanthus leaves, supported on a short footring; white earthenware with lead-fluxed pale green glaze embellished with variegated touches of copper green and iron brown over molded and applique elements; the top surface and underside of palette unglazed. Sancai ware. From northern China, Henan, Hebei, or Shaanxi province.
Commentary
Compare to:
(1) Sancai ink palette of closely related form excavated from a Tang dynasty tomb in Gongyi, Henan province. See Wenwu [Cultural Relics] 11 (1998): 47-48, fig. 42.5 and pl. 40.
(2) Sancai ink palette of similar form excavated from the tomb of Crown Prince Yide (d. 701) at Qianling, Shaanxi province. See Wenwu [Cultural Relics] 7 (1972): 32, fig. 8.
(3) White ware ink palette of similar form but with bear-form legs, purportedly made at the Gongyi kilns, Henan province excavated from a Tang-dynasty tomb at a residential quarter in Guodu, Xi’an, Shaanxi province, now in the Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology. See Zhongguo chutu ciqi quanji [Complete Collection of Chinese Ceramics Unearthed in China], vol. 15: Shaanxi (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 2008), no. 43.

Publication History

  • Abstraction and Reality: Chinese Art from the Warring States to the Liao (An Exhibition and Sale, 6-28 October 1999), auct. cat., The Chinese Porcelain Company (New York, 1999), no. 15, pp. 56-57
  • The Chinese Porcelain Company: A Dealer's Record, 1985-2000, auct. cat., The Chinese Porcelain Company (New York, 2000), p. 61

Subjects and Contexts

  • Sedgwick Collection

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu