ZETTERQUIST  GALLERIES

Jian-yao Hare’s Fur Tea Bowl

Southern Song Dynasty, 1127-1279 AD, China

Diameter: 12.7 cm

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A stoneware tea bowl with steep rounded sides and primarily persimmon colored glaze that streaks in a “Hare’s fur” pattern into a blackish brown color towards the bottom interior, where it pools to black. The glaze is similarly streaked around the exterior, where it pools above the foot-rim, revealing a dark grey stoneware body, small straight solid foot, and very shallow under-foot well. The rim is covered in a silver band, typical of these wares used in the Japanese tea ceremony. With fitted wooden box. Repaired rim chip (old repair).

In Japan, this form would have been used for a less formal “usu-cha” tea ceremony.A similar predominantly persimmon colored example is published in “Song Ceramics from the Kwan Collection”, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1994, pl. 165

Provenance: Private Japanese Collection