Conical Bowl with Carved Babies and Floral Motif (960–1279): Art, History and Details

Conical Bowl with Carved Babies and Floral Motif (960–1279) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The conical shape of this bowl is especially suitable for whipping powdered tea, which became popular at court, in monasteries, and in scholarly elite circles during the Southern Song dynasty. The decoration of this bowl was cut with a wooden instrument into the dried clay. This type of white porcelain with a translucent bluish glaze was the direct predecessor of the later blue-and-white porcelains.

Object facts

• Title: Conical Bowl with Carved Babies and Floral Motif
• Date: 960–1279
• Culture: China, Song dynasty (960-1279)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Porcelain with pale bluish-white glaze, qingbai ("blue-white") ware
• Dimensions: Overall: 7.8 x 20.3 cm (3 1/16 x 8 in.); Diameter: 21.6 cm (8 1/2 in.)
• Collection: China - Song Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 2017.19

Collection credit

Gift of Donna and James Reid

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.