Plate, Jun ware

This shallow plate with low, rounded sides and everted rim has a small raised ridge on the outside, about halfway between the foot and the rim. The plate is covered inside and out with a light blue glaze that is suffused with a large purple splash extending across the bottom on the inside to just below the under part of the rim on the outside. The glaze reaches the foot in an uneven line on the outside; the base is glazed as well. The unglazed foot is very low, cut flat, and reveals a light gray body. Light crimson flushes of color, which can be found on Jun wares of the late Northern Song dynasty, became increasingly bold during the Jin dynasty. Eventually they evolved into prominent splashes of crimson or purple, as seen here.(1) Although several kilns that manufactured “splashed Jun” wares recently have been excavated,(2) there is little information regarding the precise date the technique of using copper oxide to produce these splashes was introduced. Unfortunately, there has been very little “splashed Jun” ware discovered in datable tombs to document the chronology of its development. Of the relatively few excavated tombs containing this ware that have been published, that of Feng Daozhen, excavated in 1958 near Datong, Shanxi Province, is one of the most important. Datable to 1265,(3) it contained eleven pieces of Jun ware, a few of which show copper splashes in the glaze.(4) A Junware dish with bracket foliations at the rim and one large splash on the bottom, was found in 1956 at Xingtai City, Hebei Province. This was the tomb of Liu Bingshu, which is dated in accordance with 1290.(5)

Catalogue entry from Suzanne G. Valenstein. The Robert Collection. Decorative Arts, Volume XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, pp. 300-302.


NOTES:
1. This “splashed Jun” effect was produced by adding copper pigment to the glaze. See Wood, Nigel. Chinese Glazes: Their Origins, Chemistry and Recreation. London and Philadelphia, 1999, p. 119 and pls. pp. 121, 123; Kerr, Rose, and Nigel Wood. Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Pt. 12, Ceramic Technology, edited by Rose Kerr. Vol. 5 of Science and Civilisation in China by Joseph Needham. Cambridge, 2004, pp. 656 – 57.
2. For example, see a “splashed Jun” basin, attributed to the Yuan dynasty, excavated from the Hebiji kiln site in Henan Province (see Henan chutu taoci (Ceramics Excavated in Henan). Exhibition, Hong Kong University Museum and Art Gallery, 15 March – 24 May 1997. Organized in association with the Henan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. Catalogue. Hong Kong, 1997, no. 84).
3. Inasmuch as this date is after the fall of the Jin dynasty in the north, but before the Yuan dynasty was officially established throughout China, there is some disagreement as to whether this tomb should be classified as Jin or Yuan.
4. Datong Shi Wenwu Chenlieguan. “Shanxi sheng Datong shi Yuan dai Feng Daozhen, Wang Qing mu qingli jian bao” (A Report of the Excavation of the Yuan-Dynasty Feng Daozhen and Wang Qing Tombs at Datong, Shanxi Province). Wenwu, 1962, figs. 7 – 10. Two of these documentary “splashed Jun” wares are illustrated in color in Chūgoku tōji zenshū (Complete Works of Chinese Ceramics). Edited by Shanghai Renmin Meishu Chubanshe. Vol. 12, Jun yao (Jun Ware). Kyoto, 1983, pls. 49, 56.
5. Hebei Sheng Bowuguan and Wenwu Guanlichu Eds. Hebei sheng chutu wenwu xuanji (A Selection of Cultural Relics Excavated in Hebei Province). Beijing, 1980, p. 67, pl. 397.

Mrs. S. K. De Forest, New York; De Forest sale, American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, 28 January 1937, lot 44, ill. Acquired by Robert Lehman from the De Forest sale.