SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY (1127-1279)

While the heavy potting, grooved mouth rim, shallow angled cut on the lower sides, and treatment of the foot are typical of the tea bowls made at the Jian kilns in Fujian province, the white porcelain body is very unusual and points to another area of production. As noted in the catalogue entry for the present bowl in Song Dynasty Ceramics: The Ronald W. Longsdorf Collection, J. J. Lally & Co., New York, 2013, no. 56, “Field research has proven that elsewhere in Fujian province, white porcelain wares, mostly with transparent-bluish ‘qingbai’ glaze were in production at Dehua and other kilns during the Southern Song period. No other similar bowl with brown and ‘qingbai’ glazed combined on a porcelain body appears to have been previously published, but Fujian province and the Dehua kilns seem the most likely origin for the present example.”