A rare and superb Junyao purple-splashed 'bubble' bowl, Jin dynasty (1115-1234)

Lot 3055. A rare and superb Junyao purple-splashed 'bubble' bowl, Jin dynasty (1115-1234). Estimate 600,000 — 800,000 HKD (72,997 - 97,330 EUR) Photo: Sotheby's

with steep rounded sides rising from to a short neat knife-cut foot to a gently incurved rim, applied overall save for the foot with a lustrous pale milky-blue glaze draining to a mushroom tone at the rim and pooling short of the foot, the exterior and interior liberally decorated with vibrant lavender-blue splashes, later applied with Japanese kintsugi restoration - 8.8 cm, 3 1/2  in.

Provenance: Hirano Kotoken, Tokyo.
Sadao Ogawa, Tokyo.
Sotheby's New York, 15th September 2010, lot 308.
Eskenazi Ltd, London.

Exhibited: Junyao, Eskenazi Ltd, London, 2013, cat. no. 8.

Note: Among the genre of Song dynasty ceramics, Junyao bubble bowls are perhaps the most tactile and personal of items, as the small rounded sides and unctuous glaze allow the bowls to conform perfectly to the hands.

It is rare to find a Junyao bubble bowl with this striking combination of intense and rich splashes on the interior and the unusual arrangement of smaller splashes on the exterior, reminiscent of the bowl from the collection of Sir David Home, Bt., exhibited at the Oriental Ceramics Society exhibition of Sung Dynasty Wares, Chun and Brown Glazes, London, 1952, cat. no. 157 and sold in these rooms, 24th November 1987, lot 5. For intensity of colouration, compare the two extraordinary bowls from the Edward T. Chow Collection sold in our London 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. Similar bowls are in the Eumorfopoulos Collection, illustrated in R.L. Hobson, The Catalogue of the George Eumorfopoulos Collection of Chinese, Corean and Persian Pottery and Porcelain, vol. 2, pls A31 and A32; and in the Matsuoka Collection, included in Matsuoka Bijutsukan shūzō Chūgoku tōji meihin ten [Masterpieces of Chinese ceramics from the Matsuoka Museum of Art], Tokyo, 1983, pl. 36, formerly in the Schoenlicht Collection, sold in our London rooms, 13th December 1955, lot 76, and in the H.M. Knight Collection, and sold again in these rooms, 18th May 1982, lot 109.

According to Rose Kerr, Song Dynasty Ceramics, London, 2004, p. 34, the splashes found on Jun wares are made with the application of copper brushwork to dry glazes in broad strokes or washes, which then merged with the bluish Junyao glazes at full heat. This copper painting provided a striking contrast to the thick bright blue glaze beneath giving each vessel decorated in this manner its unique design.

Sotheby's. Curiosity III, Hong Kong, 04 Apr 2017, 10:30 AM