A 'Green Jun' large bowl
The bowl is of stoutly potted well rounded form with sides curving almost vertically at the rim, supported on a low splayed footrim. A green glaze of bluish tint, suffused with a large crackle and with some streaks of richer coloured pooling, covers the bowl inside and out, including the underside of the base, leaving only the footrim unglazed, revealing the pale grey ware burnt orange where it meets the glaze.
Provenance:
Bonhams London, 5th November 2020, lot 19
Sotheby’s London, 13 December 1988, lot 115
A European private collection
Jun wares typically fired to a bluish tone, employing optical properties in the glaze to achieve the colour. The presence of a distinct group of Jun wares, like the present example, deliberately fired to a green colour to compete for the celadon market with Yaozhou wares and Longquan wares, suggests that the chemical differences between the blue and the green glazes
was well understood by the Jun potters.
For an example of a bowl described as ‘green Jun’ in the collection of the V&A museum, see Song Dynasty Ceramics, no. 6 and 6a, p. 15, and for a slightly smaller green Junyao bowl, previously in the collection of Hans Popper, see Song Ceramics from the Van Hulten Collection, p. 48-49.
Several examples of comparable bowls excavated from the Juntai kiln site at Yuzhou are illustrated in 禹州钧台窰 “Juntai Kilns in Yuzhou”, p. 102.
Dimensions: Diameter: 22.7 cm, 9 inches
Date: Jin dynasty (1115-1234)
Stock No. 2349
Price: On Request