JIN/YUAN DYNASTY, 12TH-13TH CENTURY

The purple splashes on the current bowl were produced by the addition of copper oxides to the surface of unfired glaze, a decorative technique that appeared on Jun wares starting from the end of the 11th century. Jun bowls with splashes on both the interior and exterior are highly sought after. Compare to two bowls with splashes and of similar dimension in the Qing Court Collection, one illustrated in Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 249, no. 225, the other in A Panorama of Ceramics in the Collection of the National Palace Museum: Chün Ware, Taipei, 1999, pp. 210-211, no. 87. It may also be interesting to compare to bowls without the addition of splashes, such as the examples illustrated in Mayuyama: Seventy Years, vol. I, Tokyo, 1976, no. 398, and in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, no. 492.