A JUN-TYPE GLAZED STONEWARE BOWL, CHINA, SONG DYNASTY, 12TH–13TH CENTURY

Dimensions: Height 4,9 cm Wide 8,8 cm Depth 8,8 cm
Weight: 144 grams

A small stoneware bowl of gently rounded profile, raised on a short foot and covered inside and out with a thick Jun-type glaze. The surface moves through blue, purple and greenish tones, with areas of pooling and streaking created by the glaze during firing. At the rim and foot the ceramic body remains visible, providing a warm contrast to the cool, lustrous glaze.

Jun wares are celebrated for glazes whose beauty depends on kiln transformation rather than painted ornament. Variations in thickness, atmosphere and temperature produce shifting colours and cloud-like effects that make each fired surface individual. The modest scale of this bowl concentrates those effects into an intimate object intended to be appreciated at close range.

The unglazed foot exposes the coarse stoneware body and retains traces of kiln grit. Together with the irregular tonal transitions of the glaze, these firing marks form an important part of the vessel's visual character rather than merely a technical by-product.