白陶刻几何纹瓿

White Pottery Bu (Drinking Vessel) with Carved Geometric Design

　　白陶刻几何纹瓿，商，高20厘米，口径18.6厘米，足径15厘米。

White pottery Bu with carved geometric design of the Shang Dynasty is 20 cm in height, 18.6 cm in caliber, and 15 cm in foot diameter.

　　瓿（bù 音不）唇口外卷，溜肩，鼓腹，腹下渐收，近足处外撇，圈足。通体雕刻纹饰，以精细的回纹作地衬托几何纹，主次分明，错落有致，显得格外庄重精美。

Bu has an outward rolled lip, sloping shoulders, a round belly gradually narrowing downward from the middle, and a flared ring foot. The whole body looks solemn and exquisite, for being carved with fine frets as a ground to well set off the geometric patterns.

　　白陶早在新石器时代晚期就已出现。至商代，由于烧成温度提高，原料的淘洗亦较精细，致使白陶质地更加洁白细腻。商代早期白陶器形以鬹（guī音归）、盉（hé音禾）、爵为主，纹饰有人字形纹、拍印的绳纹和附加堆纹等。商代中期，器物增加了豆、罐、钵等，其装饰除少数绳纹外，以素面磨光为多。商代后期是白陶烧制的鼎盛期，在黄河流域的商代晚期遗址与墓葬中均发现不少白陶，其中以河南安阳殷墟出土的白陶最具特点，器物有觯（zhì音制）、壶、尊、卣（yǒu音有）等酒器和鼎、豆、盘、簋（guǐ音轨）等食器。纹饰常见有云雷纹、漩涡纹、饕餮（tāo tiè 音涛帖）纹、蝉纹、曲折纹、夔（kuí音奎）纹等。特别是将细腻的雕刻作为白陶的主要装饰技法，显示了商代后期白陶的高度发展水平。

White pottery has appeared as early as the late Neolithic period. To the Shang Dynasty, the texture was whiter and finer for the firing temperature and the raw material washing were developed. In the early Shang dynasty, white pottery was mainly in the shape of Gui (a pitcher with three legs), He (round vessel with a closed spout) and Jue (drinking vessel with three legs and a loop handle), decorated with, for example, chevron, rope and appended embossed designs.

In the middle of the Shang dynasty, Dou (ritual utensil for containing meat), jug and bowl appeared, their decorations, except for a few rope patterns, were mostly polished with plain surfaces.

The late Shang dynasty was the heyday of white pottery firing, and many of them have been found in the late Shang dynasty sites and tombs in the Yellow River basin, among which the white potteries excavated at Yinxu in Anyang, Henan Province, have the most distinctive features. They are drinking wares such as Zhi, pot, Zun, and You, and dinner wares such as Ding,Dou, plate, and Gui. The decorations commonly included cloud and thunder, swirl, Taotie (a mythical ferocious animal), cicada, fold line, and Kui (a one-legged monster in fable) patterns, and so on. Fine carving as the main decorative technique of white pottery, highlighting the high level of its development in the late Shang Dynasty.

　　以回纹作地衬托几何纹也是青铜器上装饰的常用方法，以此显示出纹饰的层次感，从而显得华丽繁缛，更有甚者，纹饰的层次可达到三层以上。

The use of the fret as a ground to set off the geometric pattern is also a common method of decoration on the bronze, so as to show the gradation, appear sumptuous and flowery, and even more, it can reach more than three layers.