FIVE DYNASTIES PERIOD-LIAO DYNASTY (AD 907-1125)

In Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 1, London, 1994, p. 196, no. 341, Regina Krahl illustrates a white stoneware water pot incised on the base with the character guan (official), and states that guan characters appear on both white stonewares as well as on celadon wares. While the guan inscription suggests that the pieces in this group were made for court use, it is unclear for which courts these pieces were made. A Ding bowl incised on the base with a guan mark in the collection of the Hunan Provincial Museum, is illustrated in Dingci yaji: Gugong bowuyuan zhencang ji chutu Dingyao ciqi huicui (Selection of Ding Ware: the Palace Museum’s Collection and Archaeological Excavation), Beijing, 2012, pp. 140-41, no. 54. See, also, the small white stoneware globular tripod jar also inscribed with a guan mark, dated to the Five Dynasties-Liao dynasty, sold at Christie’s New York, 23 September 2022, lot 942.

The inscription on the interior of the cover of the wood box was written in December of the 29th year of Showa (1954) by an individual with the sobriquet Kajin and states that the bowl was purchased in the 27th year of Showa (1952).