J13 A rare “Rounded” Longquan small bowl, Song Dynasty

Descrizione

Description:  Chinese small Longquan celadon bowl of the Southern Song dynasty. These rare small cups are particularly attractive for the incurred mouth and curved waist shape, the unglazed reddish/brownish lip, the small size. The rim of the mouth and foot where the glaze has been wiped off carefully turned into a fine, well-balanced ring-shaped burnt area with a nice contrast to the green glaze.  This is because among the products of the Longquan kilns during the Southern Song period the content of iron in hard porcelain is relatively high, therefore around the mouth rim of pieces and the border zones of the foot ring, the areas uncovered with glaze have to turn burnt reddish/brownish due to re-oxidization when they left the kiln. A little pottery jewel.

Dating:  Song dynasty

Size:  8.6 cm diameter

Provenance:  Carlo Cottarelli Collection. About this collection, see the ceramic snuff bottle C2.

References:  See in the last two pictures an identical, just slightly bigger or smaller, bowl sold by Sothebys. These sought-after bowls have been sold by the major auction houses. One is in the Gugong Palace Museum. Five of these bowls was discovered in 1991 in an hoard at Jinyu village, Suining city, Sichuan. See the catalogue of the exhibition of selected items excavated there, “Newly discovered Southern Song ceramics: A Thirteenth century time capsule”, Tokyo, 1998, n. 39-43, pages 42-43.

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