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Lot Essay
The fascination with Jun ware lies in its remarkable glaze, with its lustrous and opalescent qualities, as evident in the present lot. The present bowl belongs to a group of Jun vessels comprising narcissus bowls, flower pots and stands, where each vessel has been incised or stamped with a Chinese numeral on the base before firing. The numbers range from one to ten, and judging from the examples in museums and those examined from the excavations at Juntai, Yuxian, the numbers appear to have an indirectly proportional relationship with the sizes of the vessels, with ten representing the smallest and one the largest. Recent research by Chinese scholars has tended to support the idea that these fine quality numbered Jun vessels should date to the Yuan or early Ming dynasty, late 14th to early 15th century.
It may be significant that Jun wares do not appear to have been mentioned in Chinese literature before the Ming dynasty but are mentioned with increasing frequency in the latter part of the Ming dynasty. Interestingly, comparisons with ceramics from other kilns, including some excavated from the Imperial Ming kilns at Jingdezhen, suggests that these well-made numbered Jun vessels may have been made for the court in the early Ming dynasty, which would account for the high proportion of extant examples being preserved in the Imperial collection.
It is interesting to note that there are far more of the larger vessels in existence than the smaller vessels with larger numerals. The present bowl appears to be one of the very few narcissus bowls with drum nails design and inscribed with the numeral 'nine'. Other examples include one formerly in the Collection of Emil Baerwald and Herschel V. Johnson, illustrated by Robert-Schmidt in Chinese Keramik, Frankfurt, 1924, pl. 46 (left) and later sold at Sotheby's London, 21 February 1967, lot 30; another illustrated in Mayuyama Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, no. 415; and an example formerly in the J.M. Hu Family Collection and later sold at Sotheby's New York, 26 March 1996, lot 154.
It may be significant that Jun wares do not appear to have been mentioned in Chinese literature before the Ming dynasty but are mentioned with increasing frequency in the latter part of the Ming dynasty. Interestingly, comparisons with ceramics from other kilns, including some excavated from the Imperial Ming kilns at Jingdezhen, suggests that these well-made numbered Jun vessels may have been made for the court in the early Ming dynasty, which would account for the high proportion of extant examples being preserved in the Imperial collection.
It is interesting to note that there are far more of the larger vessels in existence than the smaller vessels with larger numerals. The present bowl appears to be one of the very few narcissus bowls with drum nails design and inscribed with the numeral 'nine'. Other examples include one formerly in the Collection of Emil Baerwald and Herschel V. Johnson, illustrated by Robert-Schmidt in Chinese Keramik, Frankfurt, 1924, pl. 46 (left) and later sold at Sotheby's London, 21 February 1967, lot 30; another illustrated in Mayuyama Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, no. 415; and an example formerly in the J.M. Hu Family Collection and later sold at Sotheby's New York, 26 March 1996, lot 154.