SONG DYNASTY (AD 960-1279)

The glaze on this vessel is a very successful example of the Song dynasty dark brown iron-rich glaze with russet splashes containing an even higher percentage of iron. A russet-splashed black-glazed bowl and cover of similar form from the Falk Collection and later sold at Christie’s New York, 20 September 2001, lot 83, is illustrated by R. D. Mowry, Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers: Chinese Brown-and Black Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1996, pp. 144-45, no. 39. A similar russet-splashed black-glazed bowl and cover in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 10, Tokyo, 1980, no. 161. Two related vessels in the Meiyintang Collection are illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. I, London, 1994, pp. 254-55, no. 462. The present covered bowl is distinguished from the above cited examples for having both the lower body and base fully covered with glaze.