NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY, FIRST HALF 12TH CENTURY

This well-proportioned bowl with its thick, lavender-blue glaze typifies the elegant simplicity of Northern Song Jun ware. A slightly larger Jun bowl with similar proportions, formerly in the collection of Oscar Raphael and now in the British Museum, is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 5, Tokyo, 1981, no. 102. A very similar Jun bowl, but with violet splashes on the exterior, is illustrated by Y. Mino and J. Robinson, Beauty and Tranquility: The Eli Lilly Collection of Chinese Art, Indianapolis, 1983, cover and pl. 83. Other related Jun bowls include an example in the Kwan Collection, illustrated in Song Ceramics from the Kwan Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1994, pp. 112-13, no. 38, and in the Meiyintang Collection, illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 1, London, 1994, p. 221, no. 386.