A Jun Ware ‘Lavender Blue’ Glazed Bowl

Northern Song Dynasty-Jin Dynasty (960-1234)
Jun kilns, Stoneware
Henan Province, North China
H: 6cm D: 10.6cm

The Jun ware bowl sturdily potted with deep straight sides rounding towards the short foot rim. The bowl is covered with a lavender blue glaze ending in an uneven line at the foot, where the marks of the potter’s tool are quite evident. The foot rim and the circular firing mark in the interior is left unglazed exposing the reddish brown clay body.

Jun ware was produced in several different kilns sites in Henan province, including the Ru kilns at Qingliangsi, Baofeng. The many area of production were the Juntai kilns, Yuxian. These kilns were active from the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Jun wares had a thicker body compared to other contemporaneous wares, which is a contributing factor to the more simplistic forms as well as the thick viscous glaze which varied in different shades of blue.

• A similar bowl with deep U-shaped sides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 20.45), illustrated in Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, pl. 77;

Provenance:
– Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 20th May 1986, lot 8.