JIZHOU WARE BOWL WITH LEAF DESIGN
SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY (1127 – 1279)
11.4 cm diameter, 5.2 cm high
The bowl stands on a shallow foot rising to rounded sides and a grooved mouth rim. The interior is decorated with the imprint of a leaf, which has turned purplish-brown with caramel and bluish mottling, against the matte dark-brown glaze, which covers the inside and outside of the bowl. The base is left unglazed exposing the buff-coloured stoneware body.
The technique of decorating bowls with tree leaves was perfectioned at the Jizhou kilns, Yongzhen, Jiangxi province. The potters specifically selected mulberry leaves because of their high content in zinc and iron, which after firing resulted in the desired light beige to caramel-brown colour. Since real leaves were used, each bowl that was created in this manner is unique.
Jizhou-ware ‘leaf bowls’ also fitted in the Buddhist aesthetics, and it has been suggested that encounters between the kilns and the sophisticated culture of Zen monks and scholars have occurred. For further reading, see Shenzhen Museum, Jizhou Kiln Porcelain from the Song and Yuan Dynasties, 2012, pp. 184-187.
Compare a similar bowl of the same shape and size in the collection of the Shenzhen Museum, illustrated in Op. cit., pl. 002. Another bowl is published by the Hong Kong Museum of Art in Song Ceramics from the Kwan Collection, 1994, pl. 174.
Provenance:
Formerly in a private Japanese collection
Christie’s Hong Kong, 2020
A private collection
Published:
Christie’s, Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 30 November 2020, lot 3026