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Lot Essay
The current bowl has a very attractive black glaze with silver and brown streaks. The formation of patterns on Jian ware bowls depends on the specific oxides of iron that form in firing and to the type of crystals that develop as the glaze cools. The current bowl's appearance is somewhere between 'silver hare's fur' and 'oil spots', and is a rare occurrence. Compare to an 'oil spot' example of similar shape but larger in size in the Seikado Bunko Museum, Tokyo, illustrated in Seika Toji Zenshu - Song, Vol. 12, 1997, Tokyo, pl. 251-2, p. 254. Compare also to the example with an indented mouth rim illustrated in ibid, pls. 94-5, pp. 100-101. A 'silver hare's fur' example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is illustrated by Robert D. Mowry in Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 1995, no. 83, p. 220.
Conical bowls were intended primarily for the drinking of tea. The choice of tea during the Song and Jin periods was a white tea that was whisked to produce a white froth on top. Black-glazed bowls such as the present example became increasingly popular as they showed off the frothy white tea to great advantage.
Conical bowls were intended primarily for the drinking of tea. The choice of tea during the Song and Jin periods was a white tea that was whisked to produce a white froth on top. Black-glazed bowls such as the present example became increasingly popular as they showed off the frothy white tea to great advantage.