Jun wares inhabit an exceptional place in Song ceramics and follow an aesthetic of their own. In an atmosphere characterized by subtle, understated taste, they stand out as the only ceramics of exuberant style. At a time, when ceramics for the table were generally thinly potted and glazed in muted tones of near-white, hazy green, or dark brown, Jun vessels were unique in the boldness of their potting as well as their colouration. The present piece is an outstanding example of this remarkable production. With striking, deeply coloured splashes both inside and outside, fully glazed, and supported in the kiln on only three spurs, dishes of this type are among the best wares of this early Jun production line.

With their ravishing purple-and-blue colour combination, Jun wares are among the most daring creations in the history of Chinese ceramics and certainly the most flamboyant of the major wares of the Song dynasty (960-1279). They are extraordinary also because their basic, bright sky-blue glaze colour derives not from a pigment but from an optical illusion – indeed not unlike the blue of the sky – as minute spherules of glass in the glaze are scattering blue light. The red derives from a copper-rich pigment applied to the blue glaze, which is difficult to control in the firing and thus unpredictable in its outcome. This chance effect makes the ware particularly desirable, since every piece is truly unique, the individual patterns and tonal variations created as if by nature.

Jun pieces of this type have the contemporary feel of abstract paintings. Song connoisseurs were extremely advanced in their taste. Generally, the court and the aristocracy in most countries and periods valued precious materials, complex forms and lavish designs, as well as perfected regularity in their artefacts. The Song ruling elite, right up to the imperial court, was able to appreciate simplicity, asymmetry, abstraction, and the ever-changing creations of craftsmen mastering their materials as well as the complex ceramic firing process. It may be the appreciation of the individuality of calligraphic or painterly brush strokes in ink on paper that explains the sensibility of Song connoisseurs to works such as this ceramic piece, which could be the work of a modern artist.

With their chunky potting and thick glaze application, Jun wares required simple shapes, and the present plain, open form is ideally suited to display the purple composition on the blue ground. The angularity of the rim, accentuated by its pale olive-coloured edges, where the glaze has drained to a thin layer, sets the whole in focus like the frame of a picture.

Jun ware was produced in many different regions of Henan province. The Jun type site is represented by the Juntai kilns at Yuzhou, Yu county, located in the modern county of Yuxian, the former region of Junzhou, where several kilns have been excavated that continued production into the Ming (1368-1644) and are perhaps best known for their later manufacture of flower vessels. In the Northern Song (960-1127) and Jin (1115-1234) dynasties, however, several manufactories produced very similar ‘Jun’ wares to the same high standard, including the famous Ru kilns at Qingliangsi in Baofeng.

A closely related dish fragment from the Yuxian kiln site attributed to the Song dynasty, with bright splashes also on the reverse and a similar foot and spur marks, is illustrated together with a complete dish, probably from the Palace Museum collection, in Gugong Bowuyuan cang Zhongguo gudai yaozhi biaoben [Specimens from ancient Chinese kiln sites in the collection of the Palace Museum], vol. 1: Henan juan [Henan volume], Beijing, 2005, pl. 448; fragments of similar dishes, some plain blue on the reverse, and some attributed to the Jin dynasty, have also been discovered at the Lushan kiln site, ibid., pl. 110, the Bacun kiln site, pl. 354, and other Yuxian sites, p. 447 top right and pl. 433.

The close connection between the three important Henan manufacturing centres, the Ru, Zhanggongxiang and Jun kilns, has been the subject of an exhibition at the Poly Art Museum, Beijing, 2009. The relationship is manifest particularly on fully glazed pieces that were fired on spurs, such as this dish, a manufacturing method rare among Jun wares. The Beijing exhibition included monochrome blue dishes of related type, with low foot ring but fired on three spurs that left thick spur marks on the base, excavated in Ye county, south of Yuzhou and Baofeng; see Henan xinchu Song Jin mingyao ciqi tezhan [Special exhibition of porcelains recently excavated from famous Song and Jin kilns in Henan], Poly Art Museum, Beijing, 2009, pp. 120-21.

Another very similar dish in the Palace Museum, Beijing, also with purple splashes inside and outside, but the splashes in form of several large uneven spots, also supported on three spurs, is published in Jun ci ya ji. Gugong Bowuyuan zhencang ji chutu Junyao ciqi huicui/Selection of Jun Ware. The Palace Museum’s Collection and Archaeological Excavation, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2013, pl. 21 (fig. 1). Two similar dishes from the collection of George Eumorfopoulos are now in the British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum, London, respectively, the former, a more densely splashed piece in the Sir Percival David Collection, is included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ru, Guan, Jun, Guangdong and Yixing Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, rev. ed. London, 1999, no. 93; the latter, perhaps lacking the spur marks, formerly in the collection of Richard Bennett, is illustrated in Rose Kerr, Song Dynasty Ceramics, rev. ed. Hong Kong, n.d. (2020), pl. 28 right (fig. 2); both are also described in R.L. Hobson, The George Eumorfopoulos Collection of Chinese, Corean and Persian Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1925-8, vol. 2, nos B90 and B93.

A dish with strong splashes on both sides but supported in the kiln on five spurs, was included in the exhibition Alchemy in Blue. Ancient Jun Ware from the Yip Collection, University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2008, cat. no. 44 and illustrated on the catalogue dust jacket. A dish with just two purple splashes on the reverse and three much thicker spur marks, in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, is illustrated in He Li, Chinese Ceramics. The New Standard Guide, London, 1996, pl. 241.

Only few comparable dishes have been sold at auction; one with similar striking splashes also on the reverse and fired on three spurs, was sold in our London rooms, 9th June 2004, lot 172 and again in our New York rooms, 23rd March 2011, lot 548. Two other related dishes are apparently plain blue on the reverse; one sold in these rooms 30th October 2002, lot 300 and again in our London rooms, 10th November 2010, lot 182; the other, reputedly from collection of Oscar Bjork and Klas Fåhraeus, Sweden, sold in our London rooms, 16th May 2012, lot 85, and included in the exhibition Junyao, Eskenazi, London, 2013, cat. no. 10.

偶成麗色艷鈞瓷
康蕊君

鈞窰器，獨步宋瓷諸窰，美學自成一家。宋朝美學以含蓄為尚，唯鈞窰風格明快鮮豔。宋朝年間，陳設案上之瓷器多以薄胎為主，上施白、青、褐等色釉，而鈞窰器則無論造型釉色均見鮮明大膽，本品乃鈞窰之珍罕佳例，盤身內外壁彩斑濃豔，採滿釉三支釘燒，實屬早期鈞窰傑作。

鈞窰器藍紫異彩明豔，乃中國製瓷史上一大創舉，瑰麗華美甚於宋瓷諸窰。鈞瓷天藍之色並非來自顏料，而屬視覺效果，釉層富含玻璃微粒，散射藍光，於大自然之蔚藍天色原理頗為相近。藍釉之上，再施含銅紅色料，此料掌控困難，故此成器發色無法預知。紋理變幻渾然天成，機緣偶得，每器獨一無二。

本品氣韻，有如當代抽象畫作。史上各朝各地，貴冑多好奢華、尚繁複而求精工，而宋朝藏家則品味高雅，無論官員巨賈或宮廷皇族，皆以素簡、寫意、不對稱為美，欣賞瓷匠造詣及窰燒過程之精微奧妙。此類鈞窰瓷器備獲推崇，或與宋朝鑑賞書畫筆墨獨特風格一脈相承。古物回溯千年，卻恰如當代藝術巨匠之作。

鈞瓷胎土稠厚，是故器形渾樸。本品器型簡約開揚，盤心藍地紫斑圖案一目了然，淡橄欖色突顯口沿菱角，邊沿釉料輕薄，如畫框般襯托中心紋理。

鈞窰瓷製於河南省各地，其中鈞台窰乃鈞窰燒造中心，古屬鈞州，今位於河南省禹縣，按出土窰址推斷，瓷窰燒造至明代，後期以花瓶器聞名。北宋及金朝期間，河南有諸多窰口產燒鈞瓷，寶豐清涼寺汝窰也在其列。

比較一例殘片，禹縣窰址出土，斷代宋朝，背面斑紋明豔，盤足及三處支釘痕與本品相近，與一完整作例同載於《故宮博物院藏中國古代窰址標本》，後者應屬清宮舊藏，卷1：河南卷，北京，2005年，圖版448；另比較破片數例，部份背面施單色藍釉，部份斷代金朝，魯山窰遺址出土，出處同上，圖版110，扒村窰址，圖版354，以及其他禹縣窰址，頁447右上及圖版433。

河南省汝、鈞及張公巷三大窰址關係密切，2009年北京保利藝術博物館展覽上曾作探討。如本品之滿釉支釘燒鮮見於鈞瓷，從中可見三窰之關係。該展包括相近單色藍釉盤例，矮圈足，三支釘燒，支釘痕粗厚，禹州寶豐以南葉縣出土，參考《河南新出宋金名窰瓷器特展》，保利藝術博物館，北京，2009年，頁120-21。

另比一例，現藏於北京故宮博物院，盤通體帶紫班，唯斑紋較大而不規則，亦為三支釘燒，載於《鈞瓷雅集：故宮博物院珍藏及出土鈞窰瓷器薈萃》，故宮博物院，北京，2013年，圖版 21（圖一）。再比較喬治・尤莫弗普勒斯舊藏兩例，現分別存於倫敦大英博物館和維多利亞及艾伯特博物館，前者斑點較密，大維德爵士故藏，載於《Illustrated Catalogue of Ru, Guan, Jun, Guangdong and Yixing Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art》，倫敦，1999年，編號93；後者或無支釘痕，曾屬 Richard Bennett 收藏，圖載於柯玫瑰，《Song Dynasty Ceramics》，香港，2020年，圖版28右（圖二）；另有兩例，均載於 R.L. Hobson，《The George Eumorfopoulos Collection of Chinese, Corean and Persian Pottery and Porcelain》，倫敦，1925-8年，卷2，編號B90、B93。

尚有一例，盤通體亦帶濃豔紫班，五支釘燒，載於《紫艷凝青：琳標堂藏古代鈞瓷》，香港大學美術博物館，香港，2008年，編號44，並見於封面。舊金山亞洲藝術博物館收藏一例，外壁帶兩紫班，三支釘燒，支釘痕遠較本品粗厚，圖載於賀利，《Chinese Ceramics. The New Standard Guide》，倫敦，1996年，圖版241。

現身拍賣場之作例甚罕，其一售於倫敦蘇富比2004年6月9日，編號172，後易手於紐約蘇富比2011年3月23日，編號548。另比兩例，外壁無斑紋，其一售於香港蘇富比2002年10月30日，編號300，後在2010年11月10日經倫敦蘇富比易手，編號182；再參考一例，傳為瑞典 Oscar Bjork 及 Klas Fåhraeus 舊藏，售於倫敦蘇富比2012年5月16日，編號85，曾展於《Junyao》，埃斯卡納齊，倫敦，2013年，編號10。