A Jian hare's fur tea bowl, China, Southern Song dynasty. Estimate 4000/6000 €. Unsold. Photo Nagel

Of deep rounded form with steep sides rising from the short ink inscribed foot, with a slight indent below the rim, covered in a lustrous caramel-brown glaze streaked with metallic emanating from the central flattened base of the interior, the exterior similarly decorated, the glaze falling short of the base to reveal the burnt purple-brown body. D. 12,6 cm. Very small old restored chip to rim

Property from an old Bavarian private collection, collection by the previous owner in China in the early 20th ct., Chinese box with labels in Chinese and English probably around 1910-20

Note: A bowl of this classic 'Jian' teabowl type in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University, was included in the exhibition Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Mass., 1995, cat. no. 79. Compare several hare's fur bowls recovered from the 'Jian' kiln site in Jianyang county, Fujian province, illustrated in Kaogu jinghua, Beijing, 1993, pl. 285, where a 'gold' and a 'silver hare's fur' glaze are distinguished.

NAGEL. "Asian Art". Sale 722, 06/06/2015