Narcissus basin with bluish-green glaze, Ru ware. Northern Song dynasty, late 11th to early 12th century. The National Palace Museum, Taipei, accession 故瓷017851N000000000. CC BY 4.0. Image resized proportionally.
Set directly on a plain surface, this basin sits low, with a narrow shadow beneath its curved feet. The National Palace Museum also photographs it on a dark, densely patterned stand. There the pale glaze has a frame, and the basin becomes part of a taller, more elaborate display.
The long oval opening flares gently outward. A thin highlight follows the rim; below it, the blue-green wall is almost uninterrupted. The museum describes the glaze as uncrackled. With so little surface detail to follow, the eye settles on the outline, especially the small curls of the feet beneath the broad base.
An Emperor Adds His Own Work
Centuries after this Ru ware basin was made, the Qianlong Emperor had a poem engraved on its underside. He also commissioned a specially designed stand with a drawer for an album of his copies after Song masters.
The drawer is an unexpected detail. Qianlong gave the basin a setting that could also hold his own work. Beneath a ceramic he admired, he kept an album that could be taken out and read.
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