NORTHERN SONG-JIN DYNASTY (AD 960-1234)

Marbling, known in Chinese as jiao tai (mixed clay), became a popular decorative technique on ceramics of the Tang dynasty and continued to be made throughout the Song-Jin period at a number of northern kilns, including the Kuangshan kilns in Jiaozuo and the Dangyangyu kilns in Xiuwu county, both in northern Henan province. The marbled appearance could be achieved either by combining clays of different colors when making the vessel, as is the case with the present bowl, or by slicing the twisted and kneaded clay into thin layers that would be laminated onto the surface of the vessel. In either case the piece was afterwards covered with a transparent glaze. Both marbling techniques required considerable skill on the part of the potter.

A very similar Song-dynasty marbled bowl with parallel ‘feather’-pattern, white rim and flat base, is illustrated by R. Krahl in Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol 3. (II), London, 2006, p. 527, no. 1528. Another very similar example from the Dangyangyu kiln site in Henan province, now in the collection of Henan Archaeological Research Institute, is illustrated in Zhongguo Dangyangyu yao (Chinese Dangyangyu Kiln), Beijing, 2011, p. 137, no. 125. See, also, a similar example from the tomb of Xu Gui, dated by epitaph to AD 1161, illustrated by Zhang (ed.) in Zhongguo chutu ciqi quanji (Complete Collection of Ceramic Art Unearthed in China), vol. 5, Shanxi, Beijing, 2008. p. 83, no. 83.