Asian Arts – Moorabool Antique Galleries

Welcome to our Asian Special.

We’re actually in Asia for this one! Paul & Glenys, your proprietors at Moorabool Antiques, are on a ‘China Expedition’ – visiting the sights & enjoying the unique culture that is China…..

Xian & Qin’s almighty ‘Terracotta Warriors’!

… the Fake Factory of ‘Terracotta Warriors’

Of course, this is not a ‘buying’ trip: China prohibits the export of anything that could be considered Antique. Rather, it is a fact-finding visit: exploring some of the regions where the Chinese items we are familiar with came from, and spending some time in the numerous Museums & Galleries and their fine collections of Chinese Art & Antiques…..

On our return, we will have a wealth of knowledge to draw on when cataloguing the incredible items from Asia which Australians are well known to have collected over the past few hundred years……

Snow on the Great Wall of China, outside Beijing

This stock release includes several such local collections of interesting Asian ceramics, including some over 1,000 years old.

Enjoy!

Chinese Porcelain ‘Fish Dish’, underglaze red & blue, Qing Dynasty 18th – 19th century

$580.00 AUD
Song Qingbai vase, lotus petal carved, 12th-13th century AD

$750.00 AUD
Chinese Qingbai ‘fish dish’, Song Dynasty 12th – 13th century AD

$580.00 AUD
Chinese Song dynasty ‘Hare’s Fur’ bowl, 12th-13th century AD

$1,800.00 AUD
Tang dynasty footed dish, white glaze, 8th century AD

$395.00 AUD
Chinese Tang dynasty white glazed wine cup, 8th century AD

$430.00 AUD
Chinese Ivory glaze vase, Tang – Song Dynasty, 10th-13th century

$3,800.00 AUD
Chinese stoneware bowl, ivory glaze, Song – Yuan Dynasty 12th-14th century

$540.00 AUD
Large Chinese Export painting, Scholar Deity, Qing Dynasty c.1840

$950.00 AUD
Large Chinese Export painting, official with captive, c.1840

$950.00 AUD

Sawankhalok Thai stoneware vase, celadon glaze, 14th-16th century

$360.00 AUD
Korean Celedon glaze stem dish, Koryo Dynasty, 13th century

$480.00 AUD
Thai Sawankhalok Small pot with spots, 14th -16th century

$285.00 AUD
Thai Sawankhalok Celadon stem dish, incised decoration, 14th-15th century
Sawankhalok (Thai) stoneware covered box, unusual brown + pale decoration, 15th c.

$585.00 AUD
Hoi An Shipwreck wine bowl, petal lobed blue + white, later 15th century

$295.00 AUD
Hoi An Shipwreck teabowl, blue + white dec., 15th century Annamese

$295.00 AUD

See all the latest Stock

Some fascinating ancient boxes, just released on Moorabool.com

We’re pleased to offer a small selection of South-East Asian ceramic boxes, fresh to Moorabool.com.

These pottery and porcelain objects were produced in vast quantities in certain places as trade goods, and as a result are found all across South-East Asia.

The earliest we have are the Khmer examples, with one delightfully shaped like a small plump bird; his beak and eyes protrude from one side, balanced by a tail at the rear. A small conical cap to the top is almost a miniature Buddhist stupa….

Song Dynasty, 13th century — Song Dynasty Qingbai, 13th century

Equal date is the amazing large white glazed porcelain box with a peony rose moulded to the top. This is from Song Dynasty China, 12th-13th century, of a type known as ‘Qingbai’.

I like the Thai pieces from the 15th century for their sophisticated moulded patterns. The ‘Deer’ and the ‘Flower’ boxes we have are particularly tactile pieces, encouraging you to explore their design with your fingertips.

Swipe Left, South Australian Museum:Swipe Right, our example. Thai, Swankalok,

The other Thai pieces are a larger form, made to hold more. These are a distinct high-fired stoneware, and the kiln sites for these were traced & excavated in the 1980’s in Thailand, known as Sawankalok. Australian scholars were a major part of this study, and an important collection of these pieces can be seen in the Art Gallery of South Australia. Interestingly, there is an almost identical box to one of our pieces there, the only difference being a complete reversal of the colour scheme; ours is like the ‘negative’ of theirs!

What were they used for?
The answer to that is “whatever you need a box for!”
Much like a Tupperware box today, they would have been used for whatever the locals needed a small container to hold. In some regions they were probably highly prized expensive imports, used in such prestigious occasions as wedding dowries and burials of the more wealthy. In some of the Indonesian island kingdoms, for example, they are found in ‘caches’, large groups of buried ‘treasure’ including ceramics and precious metals – probably a local wealthy person burying their prized possessions in a time of conflict and never coming back for them.

Another amazing source of these boxes are shipments that never made it to the market place. Boxes from well-known shipwrecks that we have include the Vietnamese products from the late 15th century Hoi An wreck, and a few from the early 17th century Ming Dynasty Bihn Thuan wreck, sold off in Melbourne a few years ago.

Here’s a selection currently in stock: