A Junyao purple-splashed dish Song dynasty | 宋 鈞窰天藍釉紫斑折沿盤

Purple-splashed Junyao wares are remarkable for their splendid colouration, which display a range of blue and lavender tones. The red derives from a copper-rich pigment brushed to the blue glaze, which is difficult to control in the firing and thus particularly unpredictable in its outcome. This chance effect is part of the ware’s attraction, giving each piece with a distinct identity, with individual patterns and tonal variations created as if by nature. Irregular purple splashes had an immense appeal to the literati and nobility of the time, who was able to appreciate simplicity, modesty and abstraction as opposed to the aristocracy in most regions and periods who preferred extravagant materials, lavish designs.

Compare a slightly smaller Northern Song example, fired on a footring, glazed blue on the interior and purple on the exterior, preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing and included in Selection of Jun Ware: The Palace Museum's Collection and Archaeological Excavation, Beijing, 2013, cat. no. 23. See also a related blue charger with an everted rim and an unglazed base, but without purple splashes, in the collection of the Tianjin Museum, illustrated in ibid., cat. no. 33.