NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY, 11TH-12TH CENTURY

The firing of the rich persimmon glaze on this bowl is particularly successful. Persimmon glazes were made at several northern Chinese kilns during the Song and early Jin periods, including the Ding and Yaozhou kilns, and seem to have been especially admired on vases and vessel forms associated with the tea ceremony. Although the Yaozhou kilns are most commonly associated with celadon-glazed wares and black and white wares, a small number of fine persimmon-glazed Yaozhou wares have been preserved. Four examples were included in the major exhibition of Yaozhou ware at the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka in 1997 and are illustrated in The Masterpieces of Yaozhou Ware, pp. 40-1 and 44, nos. 47, 48, 50 and 56.

A Yaozhou persimmon-glazed bowl, but with a notched rim, is illustrated in Black Porcelain from the Mr. & Mrs. Yeung Wing Tak Collection, Guangzhou, 1997, no. 160.