Deep bowl, Jun ware

This deep bowl with rounded sides and straight rim is covered inside and out with a smooth, opaque, light blue glaze that appears grayish where it runs thin at the mouth rim. The mouth rim itself has a somewhat dry look. The glaze ends in an uneven line just above the foot, and there are patches of glaze on the base as well. The high, slightly flared foot is cut flat and unglazed; the exposed body is burned reddish brown. A large and very diverse family of stonewares with thick, opalescent, light blue glazes, which were primarily made in Henan Province from the Northern Song period (960 – 1127) onward, are called “Jun ware”(1) for kilns that were in an area once known as Junzhou.(2) Jun wares vary widely in quality: there are many differences in the character of the potting, bodies, and glazes. In addition to the monochrome blue-glazed examples, some Jun wares have splashes of crimson or purple, which were produced by deliberately adding copper-rich pigment to the glaze (see No. 270). A special type of Jun ware consists of heavily potted bulb bowls, flowerpots, and flowerpot stands (see No. 281); this family takes the name “Numbered Jun” from a numeral, ranging from one to ten, that is invariably incised on the base.(3) This bowl is the best of the twenty-two works of Jun ware and Jun-type ware in the Robert Lehman Collection (see Nos. 261 – 81). Jun wares of this quality — particularly those with mouth rims with a dry appearance, unsplashed blue glazes, and patches of glaze on the base — are generally attributed to the Northern Song period. At the present time, however, few Jun wares from documented Northern Song tombs appear to have been published. A cache of forty-two Jun vessels was excavated in 1976 at Fangcheng xian, in Henan Province. Included in the find were two bowls with tianqing (sky blue) glazes that appear to be quite similar to the present Lehman bowl.(4) Although there was no firm evidence to support the attribution, the Fangcheng xian cache is dated to the Song dynasty in the archaeological report. A plate with flattened rim, showing large areas of dark red splashes in the glaze, was included in the cache.(5) Its shape, and the profuse use of splashes in the glaze, indicate that it may not have been produced until the Jin dynasty (1115 – 1234) at the earliest. If such were indeed the case, the cache could have been buried during the Jin era or even later, rather than the Northern Song period.

Catalogue entry from: Suzanne G. Valenstein. The Robert Lehman Collection. Decorative Arts, Vol. XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, pp. 295-296.

NOTES:
1. For the definitive technical analysis of Jun wares, see Wood, Nigel. Chinese Glazes: Their Origins, Chemistry and Recreation. London and Philadelphia, 1999, pp. 118 – 25; 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. 595 – 604.
2. Some Jun-type wares, probably later than the Northern Song in date, have been excavated from kiln sites in Hebei, Shanxi, and Zhejiang provinces, and in Inner Mongolia as well.
3. For an overview of Jun wares, see Kerr, Rose. Song Dynasty Ceramics. Far Eastern Series. London, 2004, pp. 31 – 39. For a survey of documentary, excavated works of various types of Jun wares, attributed to the Northern Song period through the Yuan Dynasty, 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, pp. 28 – 29, pls. 55 – 61, 80, 81, 83, 84. Counterparts to many of the Jun and Jun-type ceramics in the Robert Lehman Collection were in this exhibition. Compare the present Lehman bowl to exhibition, Hong Kong University Museum and Art Gallery, 1997, no. 59, excavated from the Juntai kiln site in Henan Province in 1974 (also illustrated in Henan Sheng Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo. Henan gu dai ci yao (The Ancient Kilns of Henan Province). Taibei, 2002, p. 193).
4. Liu Yusheng and Ma Yanpeng. “Henan sheng Fangcheng xian chutu yipi Song dai ciqi” (A Group of Song-Dynasty Porcelains Excavated at Fangcheng Xian, Henan Province). Wenwu, 1983, no. 3, fig. 5, left.
5. Ibid., fig. 1.

Mrs. S. K. De Forest, New York; De Forest sale, American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, 11 January 1936, lot 22, ill. Acquired by Robert Lehman from the De Forest sale.