NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY

The firing of the rich persimmon glaze on this elegant bowl is particularly successful. Persimmon glazes were made at several northern Chinese kilns in the Song and early Jin periods, including the Ding and Yaozhou kilns, and seem to have been especially admired on vases and forms associated with the tea ceremony. Gegu Yaolun, published in AD 1388, notes that 'purple' (i.e. persimmon) and black Ding were even more expensive than white Ding wares. See Sir Percival David, Chinese Connoisseurship - The Ko Ku Yao Lun, London, 1971, p. 141.