Lot 2820. A superb Jian 'hare's fur' tea bowl, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279). Estimate HK$1,000,000 - HK$1,500,000 ($129,636 - $194,454). Price Realized HK$2,440,000 ($316,312). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The bowl is heavily potted with deep rounded sides rising to a waisted neck and a vertical mouth, supported on a short straight foot. It is covered inside and out with a lustrous black glaze finely streaked with iridescent 'hare's fur' markings that stops irregularly above the foot exposing the chocolate-brown body. The mouth rim is mounted with metal. 4 7/8 in. (12.5 cm.) diam., Japanese wood box

Provenance: Sen Shu Tey, Tokyo

Notes: This classic Jian ware tea bowl has finely streaked ‘hare’s fur’ markings with an iridescent sheen. This effect depends upon various factors such the kiln atmosphere, and kiln temperature. Due to the uncertainty in firing, the wastage rate at Jian kiln was relatively high. In his first trip to the Jian ware kiln site in Shuiji in 1935, James Marshall Plumer (1899-1960) was overwhelmed by the immensity of the waste pile. He noted that “there were broken bowls in vast profusion” and the pile was around 20 metres high and consisted of bowls rejected by the potters due to minor imperfection. 

These bowls were held in high esteem by Song scholar-official class and even the emperors. Cai Xiang (1012-1067), the famous calligrapher and high official in the Northern Song court designated the ‘hare’s fur’ tea bowls from Jian’an the most appropriate utensil in serving tea in his two-chapter treatise on tea entitled Cha lu (A Record of Tea). He believed the white tea looked best in black-glazed bowls and the slightly thicker wall of Jian wares help to retain the heat of tea. By the early twelfth century, the connoisseurship of Jian tea bowls were further developed by the Emepror Huizong (1082-1135). In his twenty chapter treatise on tea, Daguan chalun (A Discourse on Tea in the Daguan Era) of 1107, the Huizong emperor commented that “the desirable colour of a tea bowl is bluish black and the best examples display clearly streaked hairs.” The current bowl is representative of the best tea bowls in Song dynasty, judging by the Huizong emperor’s criteria. 

Deep bowls with waist below the rim such as the current piece, is the most iconic form of Jian ware tea bowls. The earliest dated Jian ware example of this form was unearthed from a tomb dated to the second year of Jingkang (1127), in Wuyuan, Jiangxi province, illustrated in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua dacidian taoci juan (Dictionary of Gems of Chinese Cultural Relics: Ceramics), Shanghai, 1995, p. 306, no. 460. A bowl of similar form and size unearthed from a Southern Song tomb dated to the first year of the Qingyuan reign (1195) is illustrated by Liu Tao, Dated Ceramics of the Song, Liao and Jin Periods, Beijing, 2004, p. 123, fig. 9-6. Another similar example found in the Yuan dynasty shipwreck in Sinan, South Jeolla, Korea is illustrated in Relics Salvaged from the Seabed Off Sinan, Seoul, 1985, p. 106, plate. 94. 

During the Southern Song dynasty, tea drinking was customary in Buddhist monasteries. The Southern Song dynasty painting Luohans Drinking Tea, from the set Daitokuji denrai Gohyakurakanzu (The Daitokuji 500 Luohan Paintings) that were brought to Japan from China around the same time, demonstrated that Jian bowls of similar form as the present bowl were well preserved in Buddhist monasteries (fig. 1).  

fig. 1. Luohans Drinking Tea, Zhou Jichang (active late-12th century), Southern Song Dynasty, from the Daitokuji denrai Gohyakurakanzu (The Daitokuji 500 Luohan Paintings). Published by Nara National Museum and National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, 2014.

Together with Buddhist paintings, the tradition of tea drinking and appreciation of tea bowls were introduced to Japan by Japanese monks who travelled to China. In fact the Japanese term for Jian ware tea bowls, tenmoku, is derived from the name of famous Zen Buddhism Mountain, the Tianmu Mountain outside Hangzhou. Over the years, bowls such as the current example were treasured and handed down by generations of Japanese connoisseurs. 

Christie's. THE CLASSIC AGE OF CHINESE CERAMICS - THE LINYUSHANREN COLLECTION, PART I, 2 December 2015, Convention Hall