A rare 'Jun' purple-splashed bubble bowl, Northern Song / Jin dynasty | 北宋 / 金 鈞窰天藍釉紫斑盌

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 14th November 1989, lot 8.

Sotheby’s London, 12th November 2003, lot 133.

Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong.

香港蘇富比1989年11月14日， 編號8

倫敦蘇富比2003年11月12日， 編號133

徐氏藝術館，香港

Potted and glazed to sit effortlessly in the hand, this striking bowl epitomises the aesthetic and literati spirit of the Song dynasty (960-1279). Its simple yet robust form and bold, irregular purple splashes had an immense appeal to the literati and nobility of the time due to their simple yet flamboyant, calligraphic effect, giving each vessel decorated in this manner its unique design.

Since the Northern Qi (550-577) and throughout the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties Chinese potters in many different manufactories created wares decorated with irregular splashes in contrasting glaze colours. The copper-red streaks on blue Jun wares, however, differ from the rest: they are not fortuitous drips and splashes, but colour patterns that were applied with deliberation. Rose Kerr in Song Dynasty Ceramics, London, 2004, p. 34, notes that the splashes found on Jun wares were made with the application of copper in broad brush strokes or washes over dry bluish glazes, which then merged when fired at full heat. Like an abstract painting, the success of the overall effect therefore depends on the motion of the brush that dictates the distribution across the surface, and on the relative 'weight' of one colour in relation to the other. This challenge has been superbly managed on the present bowl.

Similar examples are included in some of the world's most prestigious collections of Chinese ceramics, including one 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; and another sold in our New York rooms, 15th September 2010, lot 303. Bubble bowls with larger vibrant areas of splash on the interior include one from the Eumorfopoulos Collection and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated in Rose Kerr, Song Dynasty Ceramics, London, 2004, pl. 26; another from the Sir Percival David Collection and now in the British Museum, London, published 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; and a third bowl sold in these rooms, 8th November 2006, lot 55, and offered in our Hong Kong rooms, 3rd April 2018, lot 3605. Two famous 'Jun' bubble bowls from the Edward T. Chow (1910-1980) Collection, perhaps the best extant examples, were both sold in these rooms, 16th December 1980, lots 264 and 265, and again in these rooms, the former on 19th May 1987, lot 209, and later in the T.T. Tsui collection; the latter, on 7th June 2000, lot 93, from the collection of Sakamoto Gorō (1923-2016), and again in our Hong Kong rooms, 2nd October 2018, lot 3109.

'Jun' ware, the most spectacular of the major Song dynasty wares, with its type site represented by the Juntai kilns in Yuzhou, Henan province, was produced by many different manufactories in Henan, including the Ru kilns at Qingliangsi in Baofeng, probably from the end of the Northern Song period (960-1127) until at least the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). 

本盌小巧精緻，釉色濃豔，令人愛不釋手，實乃宋代美學追求與文人精神之臻例代表，器型簡約，紫斑自由奔放且鮮明奪目，效果如書法揮毫，明快流暢，件件舉世無雙，甚合當時文人、貴冑品味，深得其青睞。

自北齊起，中國各地窰口所燒製瓷器，皆見有以對比鮮明之彩釉隨意點飾斑紋者，直至唐宋朝如是。然而鈞窰藍釉銅紅斑者，卻非隨意點潑，而屬著意描繪，如此特色，有別與他器。學者柯玫瑰提到鈞瓷上的斑彩是以銅紅釉粗獷刷繪，或塗覆於天青釉面、高溫中還原，融合一體而形成，見《Song Dynasty Ceramics》，倫敦，2004年，頁34。如此斑紋，有賴藝匠刷繪釉料手藝，以釉料分佈及兩彩比重見高下，如此特質，與抽象畫作異曲同工。本品紫斑超卓臻善，令人驚嘆。

可比較數例，見於世界各大中國瓷器收藏，其一現存於北京故宮博物院，參閱《故宮博物院藏文物珍品大系．兩宋瓷器（上）》，北京，1996年，圖版222；另一例售於紐約蘇富比2010年9月15日，編號303。比較三例，盌心斑紋明艷絢爛，其一出自Eumorfopoulos收藏，現存於倫敦維多利亞與艾伯特博物館，載於柯玫瑰編《Song Dynasty Ceramics》，倫敦，2004年，圖版26；其二為大維德爵士舊藏，現藏倫敦大英博物館，錄於Stacey Pierson，《Illustrated Catalogue of Ru, Guan, Jung, Guangdong and Yixing Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art》，倫敦， 1999年，圖版44；其三售於倫敦蘇富比2006年11月8日，編號55，售於香港蘇富比2018年4月3日，編號3605。亦見兩極精之例，仇焱之收藏，其一售於倫敦蘇富比1980年12月16日，編號264；繼售於香港蘇富比1987年5月19日，編號209，徐展堂故藏。其二售於倫敦蘇富比1980年12月16日，編號265；繼售於倫敦蘇富比2000年6月7日，編號93。

鈞窰器，誠宋瓷中最為艷麗奪目者，以河南禹州鈞台窰為主要窰址，但河南其他地區亦有燒造，當中包括寶豐清涼寺汝窰，據考始於北宋末年止於明代。