.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The prominent splashes of purple, red or green on Junyao wares were produced by potters who deliberately added copper to the glaze. Datable examples of Junyao bowls with splashes were found in the tomb of Feng Daozhen (d. 1265) near Datong, Shanxi, excavated in 1958, and illustrated in Wenwu, 1962, no. 10, pp. 34-42, figs. 7-10.
The brilliant purple splashes on the current bowl were produced by the addition of copper oxides to the surface of unfired glaze, a decorative technique that appeared on Jun wares starting from the end of the 11th century. In the 2001 excavation of the Liujiamen Jun ware kiln site in Shenhou, Yuzhou city, Jun ware shards decorated with large red and purple areas were found in the late Northern Song strata, and illustrated in ‘Liujiamen junyao fajue jianbao’ (Brief of the Excavation of Jun Ware at Liujiamen), Wenwu, 2003, no. 11, fig. 13 and 19. From the same excavation, shard of a small bowl with rounded sides and a slightly inverted rim, strongly reminiscent of the current bowl was also found in the late Northern Song stratum, and a line drawing is illustrated ibid., p. 34, fig. 15.7
Small Junyao bowls with splashes both on the inside and out are highly sought after. Examples of ‘bubble’ bowls include one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelain of the Song Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 246, pl. 222 (8.3 cm. diam.); two in the collection of the Percival David Foundation, PDF. 44 (8.6 cm. diam.) and PDF. 45 (8.5 cm.); one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art illustrated by S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1975, p. 87, no. 80 (50.145.316) (8.6 cm. diam.); two illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection, Geneva, 1968, vol. 1, nos. A31 and A32 (both 8.5 cm. diam.); one from the T.Y. Chao collection, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19 May 1987, lot 209 (9.2 cm. diam.); one (9 cm. diam.) from the collection of Edward T. Chow and Sakamoto Goro, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 3 October 2018, lot 3109 (9 cm. diam.); and one sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 3 April 2018, lot 3605 (9 cm. diam.).
The brilliant purple splashes on the current bowl were produced by the addition of copper oxides to the surface of unfired glaze, a decorative technique that appeared on Jun wares starting from the end of the 11th century. In the 2001 excavation of the Liujiamen Jun ware kiln site in Shenhou, Yuzhou city, Jun ware shards decorated with large red and purple areas were found in the late Northern Song strata, and illustrated in ‘Liujiamen junyao fajue jianbao’ (Brief of the Excavation of Jun Ware at Liujiamen), Wenwu, 2003, no. 11, fig. 13 and 19. From the same excavation, shard of a small bowl with rounded sides and a slightly inverted rim, strongly reminiscent of the current bowl was also found in the late Northern Song stratum, and a line drawing is illustrated ibid., p. 34, fig. 15.7
Small Junyao bowls with splashes both on the inside and out are highly sought after. Examples of ‘bubble’ bowls include one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelain of the Song Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 246, pl. 222 (8.3 cm. diam.); two in the collection of the Percival David Foundation, PDF. 44 (8.6 cm. diam.) and PDF. 45 (8.5 cm.); one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art illustrated by S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1975, p. 87, no. 80 (50.145.316) (8.6 cm. diam.); two illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection, Geneva, 1968, vol. 1, nos. A31 and A32 (both 8.5 cm. diam.); one from the T.Y. Chao collection, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19 May 1987, lot 209 (9.2 cm. diam.); one (9 cm. diam.) from the collection of Edward T. Chow and Sakamoto Goro, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 3 October 2018, lot 3109 (9 cm. diam.); and one sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 3 April 2018, lot 3605 (9 cm. diam.).