Jian stoneware tea bowl with ‘hare’s fur’ glaze. China, Northern to Southern Song dynasty, 12th to 13th century
Jian stoneware tea bowl with ‘hare’s fur’ glaze. China, Northern to Southern Song dynasty, 12th to 13th century
Diameter: 4 3/4 inches, 12 cm. Height: 2 1/4 inches, 5.7 cm. Price on application
A stoneware bowl, the steeply sloping sides rising from the short, knife-pared foot towards a flared rim, which has an indented lip. A glossy black glaze covers the interior of the bowl and extends over the rim, stopping in an uneven line just short of the foot, where it shows two characteristic tears. A dense pattern of russet ‘hare’s fur’ streaks extends from the rim on the outside of the bowl, and from a line slightly lower down on the bowl’s interior. The unglazed part of the bowl shows the dense, fine-grained purple-coloured stoneware.
• The shape, dark body and black glaze with its typical ‘hare’s fur’ markings identify this beautifully potted bowl as a product of the Jian kilns in northern Fujian province. Recent research has suggested that the deep, conical bowls typical of Jian ware were created as the ideal vessel for competitors in the tea-preparing competitions that were popular at this time.1 The Song dynasty Emperor Huizong (1082 – 1135) wrote in his treatise on tea Daguan chalun, that: “Tea bowls should be deep and relatively wide at the bottom. If the bottom is deep, then it is easy to mix the tea so that it appears milky white; if it is wide, then it is easy to whip the tea.”2 A similar bowl is in the collection of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University.3 Another example is in the collection of Umberto Draghi.4
1 Mowry, R.D. Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers, Chinese Brown- and Black-Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Cambridge, Mass. 1995, p. 214 Ben Janssens Oriental Art. 91c Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6JB London - United Kingdom. Tel : +44 (0) 20 7976 1888 - Fax number : +44 (0) 20 7976 2588 - Email address : info@benjanssens.com - Website : http://www.benjanssens.com
2 Mowry, R.D. op.cit. p. 214
3 Mowry, R.D. op. cit. no. 79, pp. 213-215
4 Noppe, C. Art Chinois, Néolithique, Dynastie Song, Collection Umberto Draghi, Musée Royal de Mariemont, 1990, no. 89, pp. 109-110