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Lot Essay
The glaze on this vessel is a very successful example of the Song dynasty dark brown iron-rich glaze with russet splashes containing an even higher percentage of iron. Such glazes developed from earlier Tang glazes, but the Song potters utilized more refined raw materials and higher firing temperatures to achieve greater contrast and control. See N. Wood, Chinese Glazes - Their Origins, Chemistry and Recreations, London/Philadelphia, 1999, p. 142. The russet splashes were applied in a number of ways, either regularly, as on a vase in the National Museum of Korea, illustrated in Song Ceramics, Osaka, 1999, p. 123, no. 85, or with an almost organic randomness, as on a truncated meiping in the Miyoshi Kinenkan, Ashikaga, illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, vol.12, Song, Tokyo, 1977, no. 246. The Falk covered bowl strikes an aesthetically pleasing median between these two extremes.
Covered bowls were popular in both north and south China in the Song period. Scholars have suggested that such bowls were used for holding water in the making of tea. Water was stored in large jars to allow the impurities to settle to the bottom, and when water was required for tea some was ladled out into one of these small covered jars. A brown-glazed jar, now lacking its cover, of similar size to the Falks' has been shown to have a capacity of 1,236 ml. and this has been linked to the passage in the Chajing (Tea Classic) which mentions a "container for hot water with a capacity of 2 sheng". See Ancient Chinese Tea Wares, Urban Council of Hong Kong, 1994, pp. 148-9 and 152-3, nos. 55 and 57. The Falk bowl is most closely related to the fine covered bowls from the Ding kilns, such as the white-glazed example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, but more especially those with high-iron glazes, like the so-called purple Ding bowl in the same collection, illustrated in Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I): The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, Li Huibing (ed.), Hong Kong, 1996, nos. 58 and 85.
A clue to the shape of the small finial on the cover of the Falk covered bowl can be seen in the fact that small covered bowls were also made at the Yue kilns in the early Northern Song period. These, like the lidded vases, were often decorated with overlapping petals or leaves and also typically had covers in the form of upturned or pendent leaves, see Zhongguo Wenwu Jinghua Daquan, Taipei, 1993, p. 278, nos. 363 and 364. Their finials were therefore formed as stems, which provide the origin of the brown ware bowl finial.
Various versions of these covered bowls are found within the Cizhou tradition. White vessels, such as that in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from the Charles B. Hoyt Collection and marbled ware examples, like that in the same institution give an idea of the range. See J. Fontein, et al. Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 10, Tokyo, 1980, nos. 126 and 84. A somewhat later covered bowl, excavated from the Duandian kiln in Lushan, Henan, which has a reduced diameter in proportion to its height, is typical of the black and white versions of this form made at the Cizhou kilns. See Ceramic Finds from Henan, University Museum and Art Gallery/Henan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Hong Kong, 1997, p. 116, no. 87. A Southern Song covered bowl with qingbai glaze, made at Jingdezhen, but excavated in Sichuan, indicates how closely the Song northern form was copied by the southern potters and is illustrated in Newly Discovered Southern Song Ceramics - A Thirteenth-Century "Time Capsule", Japan, 1998, pp. 92-3, nos. 111 and 112.
A bowl and cover with similar glaze to that of the Falk example is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 10, op. cit., no. 161. Similar, but unpublished, covered bowls are in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago and in a private collection in St. Louis (formerly in the Alfred Clark Collection). Two related vessels are also illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. I, London, 1994, pp. 254-5, no. 462.
Covered bowls were popular in both north and south China in the Song period. Scholars have suggested that such bowls were used for holding water in the making of tea. Water was stored in large jars to allow the impurities to settle to the bottom, and when water was required for tea some was ladled out into one of these small covered jars. A brown-glazed jar, now lacking its cover, of similar size to the Falks' has been shown to have a capacity of 1,236 ml. and this has been linked to the passage in the Chajing (Tea Classic) which mentions a "container for hot water with a capacity of 2 sheng". See Ancient Chinese Tea Wares, Urban Council of Hong Kong, 1994, pp. 148-9 and 152-3, nos. 55 and 57. The Falk bowl is most closely related to the fine covered bowls from the Ding kilns, such as the white-glazed example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, but more especially those with high-iron glazes, like the so-called purple Ding bowl in the same collection, illustrated in Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I): The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, Li Huibing (ed.), Hong Kong, 1996, nos. 58 and 85.
A clue to the shape of the small finial on the cover of the Falk covered bowl can be seen in the fact that small covered bowls were also made at the Yue kilns in the early Northern Song period. These, like the lidded vases, were often decorated with overlapping petals or leaves and also typically had covers in the form of upturned or pendent leaves, see Zhongguo Wenwu Jinghua Daquan, Taipei, 1993, p. 278, nos. 363 and 364. Their finials were therefore formed as stems, which provide the origin of the brown ware bowl finial.
Various versions of these covered bowls are found within the Cizhou tradition. White vessels, such as that in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from the Charles B. Hoyt Collection and marbled ware examples, like that in the same institution give an idea of the range. See J. Fontein, et al. Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 10, Tokyo, 1980, nos. 126 and 84. A somewhat later covered bowl, excavated from the Duandian kiln in Lushan, Henan, which has a reduced diameter in proportion to its height, is typical of the black and white versions of this form made at the Cizhou kilns. See Ceramic Finds from Henan, University Museum and Art Gallery/Henan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Hong Kong, 1997, p. 116, no. 87. A Southern Song covered bowl with qingbai glaze, made at Jingdezhen, but excavated in Sichuan, indicates how closely the Song northern form was copied by the southern potters and is illustrated in Newly Discovered Southern Song Ceramics - A Thirteenth-Century "Time Capsule", Japan, 1998, pp. 92-3, nos. 111 and 112.
A bowl and cover with similar glaze to that of the Falk example is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 10, op. cit., no. 161. Similar, but unpublished, covered bowls are in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago and in a private collection in St. Louis (formerly in the Alfred Clark Collection). Two related vessels are also illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. I, London, 1994, pp. 254-5, no. 462.