Rectangular flower pot stand. Stoneware body covered in blue and purple glazes with olive-green on base. Numbered or Official Jun ware 官鈞窯. Juntai, Yuxian, Henan province 河南省, 禹縣, 鈞台. Ming dynasty, about AD 1368–1435. On loan from Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art. PDF 97 © Trustees of the British Museum

Height: 53 mm. Width: 182 mm. Width: 153 mm (base). Depth: 114 mm (base). Width: 182 mm (mouth). Depth: 147 mm (mouth). Official Jun stoneware flower-pot-stand with lobed corners, a flattened rim with a narrow raised edge and four coud-shaped feet. The flower-pot-stand has opalescent glaze on the interior, except junctions between sides, base and rim, which are purple, the exterior is purple-glazed, apart from an area of blue at the lower edge. There is an inscription on the base, which is glazed.

This rectangular numbered Jun flower pot stand has four cloud-shaped feet. It is very rare for both the pot and matching stand to survive (matching pot is PDF 96) and both are inscribed 十 shi, meaning ten, on the base. Song Xu 宋詡 was the first scholar to mention Jun wares in AD1504 in《宋氏家規部》 (Song shi jia guibu ‘ Song family customs’). Later Ming writers mention Jun wares frequently in the literature of connoisseurship. Interestingly, however, unlike Song wares they are not described as items from another era in these works, suggesting perhaps that they were not antiques when the texts were compiled. 

Bibliographic reference: Medley, Margaret, Volume 7: Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, 7 of 12, Tokyo, Kodansha ltd, 1975

Hobson, Robert L, A Catalogue of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain in the Collection of Sir Percival David Bt., F.S.A., London, The Stourton Press, 1934

Yorke Hardy, Sheila, Tung, Ju, Kuan, Chun, Kuang-tung & Glazed I-hsing Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, University of London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1953 

Pierson, Stacey, Illustrated catalogue of Ru, Guan, Jun, Guangdong and Yixing wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, University of London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1999