Flower Vase with Dragon Motif

CultureChinese

DateNorthern Song dynasty (960-1127)

MediumStoneware decorated in sgraffito technique

DimensionsOverall: 22 3/8 × 10 inches (56.82 × 25.4 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number35-116

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionBaluster-shaped vase with long neck and flaring foot decorated with a single dragon and petal-like forms; the decoration was produced using the sgraffito technique. On one of the rising petals at the base, the signature of the potter reads, "flower vase made by the Liu family" (translation).Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Masterpieces of Asian Art, Asia Society, New York, 1960.

Chinese Ceramic Art, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Mayuyama Co., Takashimaya Department Store, Tokyo, Japan, April 5-19, 1960.

Freedom of Clay and Brush through Seven Centuries in Northern China: Tz'u-Chou Type Wares, 960-1600 A.D., Indianapolis Museum of Art, November 17, 1980 - January 18, 1981.

Cleveland Museum, August 4 – September 6, 1981; China House Gallery, New York, March 20 – May 24, 1981.

Provenance

Purchased through Laurence Sickman by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1935.

Published References

International Exhibition of Chinese Art (London: Burlington House, 1935), no. 1246, ills (repro.).

American Magazine of Art (October 1936), 29:663-6, ills (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 119, fig. 21 (repro.).

R.L. Schollman, C.E. Slatkin, The Enjoyment of Art in America (Philadelphia; New York: Lippincott, 1942), pl. 179 (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 138 (repro.).

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Tokyo, Japan: April 27, 1955) (repro.).

Tosetsu, Japan Ceramic Society (Tokyo: J. Mayuyama, April 1956), 92 (repro.).

H.W. Janson, Key Monuments of the History of Art (1959), pl. 346 (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 210 (repro.).

Masterpieces of Asian Art in American Collections, exh. cat. 10 (1960), 18, ills (repro.).

Chinese ceramics (Tokyo: Takashimaya Department Store, April 5-17, 1960), 8, no. 30 (repro.).

Fujio koyama, ed., Chinese Ceramics, One Hundred Selected Masterpieces from Collection in Japan, England, France, and America (Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 1960), pl. 54 (repro.).

Sung-tai Min-Chien T’ao-lu (Shanghai, 1962), pls. 140-143 (repro.).

Jan Wirgin, “Sung Ceramic Designs,” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 42 (Stockholm, 1970), pl. 49h (repro.).

Chinese Art in Western Collections: Ceramics, vol. 5 (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1972), pl. 25 (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, George L. McKenna, and Marc F. Wilson, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. II, Art of the Orient. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 84 (repro.).

Sherman E. Lee, “The Changing Taste for Chinese Cermaics” Apollo, special issue for the Asian art collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Vol. XCVII, no. 133 (March 1973), 47, pl. 11 (repro.).

R. Fujioka, G. Hasebe et al., Ceramic Art of The World, vol. 14 (Tokyo: Shogakukan, 1976), 177, pl. 181 (repro.).

Yutaka Mino, Freedom of Clay and Brush Through Seven Centuries in Northern China: Tz’u-chou type Wares, 960-1600 A.D. (Indianapolis: Indianapolis Museum of Art ; Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1980), 108 pl. 19, pl. 42 (repro.).

Antiques World, vol. III, no. 6 (April 1981), 76-79, ills (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 295 (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 338, pl. 169 (repro.).

Colin Mackenzie, with contributions by Ling-En Lu, Masterworks of Chinese art: the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2011), 64-65, no. 18 (repro.).

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Ceramics: highlights from the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Museum, 2016), 16-17 (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.