Lot 3228. A Junyao purple-splashed bowl, Song–Yuan dynasty (960-1366), 10.4 cm, 4 in. Estimate 250,000 — 300,000 HKD. Lot Sold 325,000 HKD (39,329 EUR) (41,824 USD). Photo: Sotheby's.

well potted with steep sides rising from a short foot to a gently incurved rim, applied overall save for the footring with an opaque pale greyish-blue glaze stopping short of the foot, the interior and exterior liberally decorated with purple splashes, the unglazed foot revealing the grey body burnt orange in the firing 

Provenance: Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo.
Tony Omura, Hong Kong, 17th August 2002. 

Exhibited: Sodai no tōji [Song ceramics], Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, 1979, cat. no. 65.

Note: Purple-splashed Junyao bowls of this classic form are remarkable for their understated elegance, offset by splendid colouration displaying a range of blue and lavender tones. Rose Kerr in Song Dynasty Ceramics, London, 2004, p. 34, notes that the splashes found on Jun wares are made with the application of copper brushwork or washes, which then merge with the bluish Junyao glazes at full heat. This provides a striking contrast to the thick bright blue glaze beneath, giving each vessel decorated in this manner its unique design.

Compare a splashed Junyao bowl in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in the Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 225; and another from the Sir Percival David Collection and now in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Margaret Medley, The Chinese Potter, Oxford, 1976, fig. 83. Two Jun splashed bubble bowls from the Edward T. Chow Collection, amongst the best extant examples, were sold in our London rooms, 16th December 1980, the first, lot 264, sold again in these rooms, 19th May 1987, lot 209, from the T.T. Tsui Collection; the second, lot 265, sold in our London rooms, 7th June 2000, lot 93.

Sotheby's. Song Ceramics from a Distinguished Private Collector, Hong Kong, 05 Apr 2017, 11:00 AM