SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY (1127-1279)

Beautiful crackle-glazed Longquan bowls of this type may have been made in imitation of Guan wares, but in view of the pale body, the well- controlled sea-green colour and the texture of the glaze, it seems more likely that this was a specific Longquan type. The rather delicate conical form of this bowl, standing on a small foot, is shown to good advantage by the even, blue-green glaze. Conical bowls were used for the drinking of tea, and the Longquan kilns produced such bowls for both the domestic and export market. Three similar Longquan conical bowls were discovered in 1991 in Suining, Sichuan province, amongst a cache of ceramics dating from the late Southern Song period. See Newly Discovered Southern Song Ceramics, A Thirteenth-Century "Time Capsule", Tokyo, 1998, pp. 40-1, nos. 36-8. A very similar bowl, recovered from the Sinan wreck off the coast of Korea, was included in the Special Exhibition of Cultural Relics Found off the Sinan Coast, National Museum of Korea, Seoul, 1977, pl. 19. A crackle-glazed example was excavated from the Song dynasty kiln at Shifangxian, and is illustrated in Celadons from Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, p. 166, nos. 137-1 and 137-2. Another example in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is included in Illustrated Catalogue of Sung Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, Lung-ch'üan Ware, Ko Ware and Other Wares, Taipei, 1974, pls. 17 and 18. Two further examples include one in the Percival David Foundation Collection illustrated by M. Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Celadon Wares, London, 1977, p. 17, no. 35; and a slightly smaller bowl in the Nezu Museum Collection included in the exhibition Heavenly Blue: Southern Song Celadons, Tokyo, 2010, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 33.