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Jizhou Conical Tea Bowl with Paper-cut Phoenix Decoration
Southern Song Dynasty, 1127 - 1279 AD, China
Diameter: 15.2 cm
A finely potted conical tea bowl from the Jizhou Kilns in Jiangxi Province. The straight walls of the
interior ascend from a tiny circular well in the bottom, and are decorated with “paper-cut” reserve
decoration of two phoenix in flight and three plum blossoms, appearing blackish brown against a
variegated background of buff and amber tones under a streaked rim. The exterior has a tortoiseshell
decoration against a solid blackish brown and persimmon background, all ending just above knife cut
shallow foot-rim beveled in from an horizontal ridge and unglazed, revealing a buff stoneware body.
For a similar example, see “Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers” by Robert D. Mowry.
Harvard University Art Museums, 1995. pl. 97. Also see “Song Ceramics from the Kwan Collection”,
Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1994. pl. 172 and another in Masterpieces of the Okada Museum of Art, Vol.
1, Tokyo 2013, no. 14.
Condition: Rim chip/fritting repaired.
Literature: Chugoku Meito-Ten: Chugoku toji 2000-nen no seika [Exhibition of Chinese Pottery: Two
Thousand Years of Chinese Ceramics], Tokyo, 1992, no. 53.
Provenance:
Yang De Tang Collection
Sotheby’s, 2015 (Sold for US$93,750.)
Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection