A small purple splashed Junyao bubble bowl, Song dynasty | 宋　天藍釉紫斑小盌

Collection of the Fujita Museum, Osaka.

Considered one of the fabled ‘Famous Wares’ of the Song dynasty, Jun wares number among the most captivating ceramic pieces ever produced in Chinese history. Unlike most glazes, which rely on their chemical composition to produce a fairly consistent colour effect, the iridescent and dazzling effect of Junyao is enhanced by the glaze’s physical structure. Applied in thick layers, pooling down the bowl’s curvaceous interior, the present glaze is replete with microscopic bubbles which scatter the light to produce an ineffable ‘optical blue’. This technique, a testament to the consummate skill of these early potters, continued to be admired throughout the subsequent Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and particularly by the Yongzheng and Qianlong Emperors who sought (to no avail) to replicate the effect at the kilns of Jingdezhen.

One particularly desirable feature among small ‘bubble bowls’ of this form is the characteristic splashes of purple copper oxides applied to the glazed surface. These dramatic streaks, brushed on with abandon as free-spirited celebration negative space, emphasises the bowl’s subtle form and iridescent quality.

Several bowls of comparable size and form are preserved in the world’s most important collections including: one preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 222; another from the Eumorfopoulos Collection, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated in Rose Kerr, Song Dynasty Ceramics, London, 2004, pl. 26; a third from the Sir Percival David Collection and now in the British Museum, London, in Stacey Pierson, Illustrated Catalogue of Ru, Guan, Jun, Guangdong and Yixing Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1999, pl. 44; a fourth slightly smaller (8.5 cm) bowl from the Robert Lehman Collection, now preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Suzanne Valenstein, The Robert Lehman Collection. Decorative Arts, vol. XV, New York, 2012, p. 299; and a fifth sold in our London rooms, 1st November 2023, lot 183.

Two famous 'Jun' bubble bowls from the Edward T. Chow (1910-1980) Collection, perhaps the best extant examples, were both sold in our London rooms, 16th December 1980, lots 264 and 265, and again in London: the former on 19th May 1987, lot 209, later in the T.T. Tsui Collection; the latter, on 7th June 2000, lot 93, from the collection of Sakamoto Gorō (1923-2016), sold again in these rooms, 2nd October 2018, lot 3109.

來源

藤田美術館收藏，大阪