NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY (960-1127)

The bold russet splashes accenting the blackish-brown glaze on this bowl are often referred to as zhegu ban, or ‘partridge feather mottles’. ‘Partridge feather’ glaze was popular among many kilns in both northern and southern China, with the Ding ‘Partridge feather’ wares, such as the Bernat Ding ‘partridge feather’ bowl (lot 506), being the premier examples among the Northern kilns. Two very similar ‘partridge feather’ bowls in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, are illustrated by R. D. Mowry, Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers: Chinese Brown-and Black Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Cambridge, 1996, pp. 140-42, no. 37a&b, where the author notes that the “sherds of related, light-bodied bowls with partridge-feather glazes excavated from the second stratum of the Cizhou-type Guantai kilns, in Hebei province, often have unglazed but well-cut footrings and shallow bases akin to those seen here, suggesting a possible kiln of manufacture.” Compare, also, a bowl of this type, with rounded sides and flared rim, illustrated in Black Porcelain from the Mr. & Mrs. Yeung Wing Tak Collection, Guangzhou, 1997, pp. 220-21, no. 108.