J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York

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Past Exhibition

Arts of Ancient China

March 27 - April 12, 2006

1.
A NEOLITHIC RED POTTERY BOWL WITH PAINTED FISH DESIGN

Yangshao Culture, Banpo type, 4th Millennium B.C.

of almost hemispherical form with rounded base, steep sides and neatly finished lipless rim, the red pottery body smoothly burnished inside and out, decorated with two fish just below the rim on opposite sides, each elongated and geometrically stylized fish drawn in black with twin forked tails, large round eyes and spikey teeth, the surface showing remains of encrusted earth from burial. 

Diameter 8 12 inches (21.5 cm)

Compare the Neolithic red pottery bowl painted with fish designs below the wide everted rim, excavated in 1981 from Fengan county, Gansu province, illustrated in Zhongguo Taoci Quanji: Xinshiqi Shidai (The Complete Works of Chinese Ceramics: Neolithic Period), Vol. 1, Shanghai, 2000, p. 78, no. 31.


Compare also the Neolithic red pottery bowl of very similar form, painted under the lipless rim with a plain black border, excavated between 1978-1984 from Dadiwan, Qin’an, Gansu province, illustrated in Kaogu, No. 6, 2003, col. pl. no. 2 and in a line drawing on p. 30, fig. 17, no. 3, together with a pottery bowl with everted rim painted with fish design from the same site, col. pl. no. 3, and in a line drawing on p. 26, fig. 11, no. 4.  A variation of the fish design from another painted pottery bowl found at the same site is illustrated in a line drawing on p. 25, fig. 9, no. 1.

新石器時代   仰韶文化  半坡類型  魚紋彩陶盆  徑 21.5 厘米