Cleveland Museum of Art

Candle Stand

Date

600s

Medium

white stoneware with modeled and applied decoration

Culture

China, Sui dynasty (581-618) to early Tang dynasty (618-907)

Department

Chinese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This magnificent candle or lamp stand consists of a shallow dish and a cylindrical holder, below which is a columnar support embellished with palmette designs and two entwined dragons atop a lotus blossom pedestal. The creamy white stoneware is covered with a finely crackled clear glaze that shows a slight yellow-green tinge where it is thick. The search for a white clay body represented a technical advancement of the kilns in northern China, anticipating the development of the true high-quality white porcelains during the late Tang period.

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