2010.459: Small Tea Bowl with Rounded Sides and Russet Hare's Fur Markings

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2010.459

Title

Small Tea Bowl with Rounded Sides and Russet Hare's Fur Markings

Classification

Vessels

Work Type

vessel

Date

12th-13th century

Places

Creation Place: East Asia, China, Fujian Province, Jianyang

Period

Song dynasty, 960-1279

Culture

Chinese

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/315464

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Jian ware: dark gray stoneware with dark brown glaze, the markings in iron oxide. From the Jian kilns at Jianyang, Fujian province.

Dimensions

H. 5.9 x Diam. 10.5 cm (2 5/16 x 4 1/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Edmund Lin (1928-2006; Professor, Harvard Medical School), Boston; by bequest to the Harvard Art Museum

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Edmund Chi Chien Lin

Accession Year

2010

Object Number

2010.459

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Description

This small tea bowl has rounded sides that rise from its small, circular footring to its circular lip, which is subtly indented just below the top. The bowl's walls are relatively thick, though they taper towards the lip; the thick walls 1) helped to keep warm the tea that originally was served in the bowl and 2) made the bowl's center of gravity relatively low which aided in keeping the bowl upright and the tea contained, should the filled bowl accidentally be bumped. The dark brown glaze, which appears black in reflected light, covers the bowl's interior and most of its exterior, stopping about one-third of the way up from the footring. The lowest portion of the bowl is unglazed, as are the footring and base. The bowl's dark gray clay body is visible in the unglazed areas; the exposed body clay assumed a dark purplish brown, or liver-colored, skin during firing. Termed "hare's fur markings", subtle russet brown streaks enliven the glaze inside and out on the upper portion of the bowl. The markings were created by dipping the lip of the bowl into iron-oxide-rich slip, once the glaze slurry had been applied and had dried or at least stabilized. The bowl was fired right side up in a saggar, standing on its footring. This is an exceptionally fine bowl of this type in terms of its shape, glaze, hare's fur markings, and condition.

Verification Level