CHINESE JIZHOU ‘TORTOISESHELL’-GLAZED TEA BOWL
SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY
Estimate: £800 - £1,200
Auction: 16 May 2025 from 09:00 BST
Description
南宋 吉州窯玳瑁斑茶盞 帶木盒
the flared sides covered inside and out with a dark brown glaze splashed in amber tones reminiscent of tortoiseshell, stopping just above the foot, revealing the buff stoneware body, with a Japanese wooden box tomobako
Dimensions
15.5cm diameter
Provenance
Formerly in a private Japanese collection
前日本私人收藏
Footnote
The remarkable glaze seen on this bowl was an innovation of the pioneering potters at the Jizhou kilns in Jiangxi province. Known as 'tortoiseshell' glaze, its name was derived supposedly from its similarity to the shell of a warm-water sea turtle known as the hawksbill. Compare to two similar tortoiseshell-glazed bowls, both dated to the Southern Song dynasty, one in the Sir Percival David collection, British Museum, registration number: PDF305; the other in the Scheinman Collection, see R. Mowry, Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell, Partridge Feathers, Cambridge, 1996, no. 87, pp. 225-6