SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY (1127-1279)

The rather delicate conical form of this bowl, standing on a small foot, is shown to good advantage by the even, blue-green glaze. Conical bowls were used for the drinking of tea, and the Longquan kilns produced such bowls for both the domestic and export market. Three similar Longquan conical bowls were discovered in 1991 in Suining, Sichuan province, amongst a cache of ceramics dating from the late Southern Song period. See Newly Discovered Southern Song Ceramics, A Thirteenth-Century "Time Capsule", Tokyo, 1998, pp. 40-1, nos. 36-8. A very similar bowl, recovered from the Sinan wreck off the coast of Korea, was included in the Special Exhibition of Cultural Relics Found off the Sinan Coast, National Museum of Korea, Seoul, 1977, pl. 19. A crackle-glazed example was excavated from the Song dynasty kiln at Shifangxian, and is illustrated in Celadons from Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, p. 166, nos. 137-1 and 137-2. Another example in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is included in Illustrated Catalogue of Sung Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, Lung-ch'üan Ware, Ko Ware and Other Wares, Taipei, 1974, pls. 17 and 18.