Song Dynasty (A.D. 960-1279)
with steeply rounded flaring sides, decorated on the interior with rows of white-centered tan spots similar to markings on the fur of a fawn, the design applied over the dark-brown glazed background in horizontal rows down the sides and onto the flat circular floor of the bowl, and with widely spaced tan-colored spots over the upturned edge of the rim, the exterior splashed with cloudy bluish and reddish-tan ‘tortoiseshell’ markings on a dark brown glaze, the small ring foot and slightly recessed flat base unglazed showing the buff-colored pottery.
Diameter 4 3⁄8 inches (11.2 cm)
A Jizhou tea bowl of this shape similarly decorated with pale ‘deer spots’ in horizontal rows is illustrated by Ayers, The Baur Collection: Chinese Ceramics, Vol. I, Geneva, 1968, no. A71. Another similar Jizhou tea bowl was exhibited at the Osaka Municipal Museum and illustrated in the catalogue entitled Sō Gen no bijutsu (Art of the Song and Yuan), Osaka, 1978, no. 1-219, from the collection of the Hakutsuru Museum, Kobe.
A similar Jizhou tea bowl decorated with the same patterns inside and out is illustrated in the catalogue of the special exhibition at the National History Museum in Taipei entitled Terre de Neige, de Glace, et d’Ombre: Quatorze siècles d’histoire de la céramique chinoise à travers les collections du Musée Guimet, Taipei, 1999, p. 160, no. 95, from the Calmann Collection.
Compare also the Jizhou tea bowl of this form and pattern published in Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum: Chinese Ceramics I, Tokyo, 1988, p.165, no.662, from the donation of Dr. Yokagawa Tamisuke; and a similar example illustrated in Black Porcelain from the Mr. and Mrs. Yeung Wing Tak Collection, Guangzhou, 1997, pp. 226-227, no. 111.
宋 吉州鹿斑玳瑁釉盞 徑 11.2 厘米