JIN DYNASTY, 12TH-13TH CENTURY

Cizhou-type ‘oil spot’ tea bowls from the Jin dynasty are very rare. ‘Oil spot’ glazes were invented at the Jian kilns in Fujian province in the Southern Song dynasty, but black wares were made as early as the 10^th century in the late Five Dynasties-early Northern Song period. Cizhou examples of ‘oil spot’ tea bowls show the influence of these Jian examples in both shape and glaze.

A nearly identical Jin dynasty Cizhou-type ‘oil spot’ tea bowl from the Scheinman Collection is illustrated by R. Mowry in Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers, Cambridge, 1996, pp. 157-58, no. 50. See, also, an example dated to the Yuan dynasty, excavated from Tuchengzi site, Wulanchabu city, and currently in the Inner Mongolia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, illustrated in Zhongguo chutu ciqi quanji (Complete Collection of Ceramic Art Unearthed in China), vol. 4, no. 193, which has slightly larger oil spots than the present bowl.