Rectangular flower pot. 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 96 © Trustees of the British Museum

Height: 149 mm. Width: 205 mm. Width: 99 mm (base). Depth: 136 mm (base). Width: 205 mm (mouth). Depth: 165 mm (mouth). Quadrangular Official Jun stoneware flower-pot with fluted corners, sloping sides and four cloud-shaped feet. The flower-pot has opalescent blue glaze on the interior base and lower walls, purple on the upper interior walls and rim, and a purple glazed exterior. There is an inscription and five drainage holes on the base, which is glazed.

This rectangular numbered Jun flower pot has four cloud-shaped feet. It is very rare for both the pot and matching stand (PDF 97) to survive 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, 1975Medley, 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