Northern Song dynasty, Late 11th century to early 12th century
This elegant oval cup, crafted in a graceful steppe style, features a thin and lightweight wall with a shallow curved shape. The interior is adorned with molded floral patterns. The entire cup is coated with a light blue glaze, with only three fine stilt marks left visible. The base center is shallowly excavated into a circular groove. The serene sky-blue glaze reveals fine pale yellow crackle patterns, and a faint pinkish hue emerges due to the thin glaze over the body. Underneath the thin glaze at the bottom, one can faintly discern a decorative pattern depicting two plump, sharp-tailed creatures gazing at each other with four eyes. A similar design can be seen on an oval cup from the British Museum, formerly part of the Percival David Foundation collection. Archaeological findings from the Ru kiln site at the Qingliang Temple in Baofeng, Henan have also uncovered small basins with similar designs, referred to as “big-eyed fish patterns.” The stilt marks on the National Palace Museum’s oval cup reveal a light gray clay body, likely from the stilts themselves, while areas with glaze shrinkage display a dark gray body. Ru kiln’s “fragrant gray clay” is well-known in scholarly circles, but recent findings at the Qingliang Temple site have uncovered beige, dark gray, and even brick-red bodies, expanding the understanding that Ru ware does not exclusively feature the light gray clay body.
As for the function of the flat, small basin, ceramic historian Hsieh Ming-liang suggested that the artifact was referred to as a “brush washer” because Emperor Qianlong categorized the item as a desk accessory. This resulted in its original purpose during the Song dynasty being overlooked. The oval cup likely draws inspiration from the gold and silver or jade drinking vessels of Sogdian nomads in Central and West Asia. Evidence includes both surviving metalware and depictions in Sogdian murals of drinking scenes. Jade oval cups remained popular in Islamic grassland regions from the 15th to 18th centuries, as evidenced by several Islamic jade oval cups housed in the National Palace Museum’s collection (see National Palace Museum jades 1383 and 2773).