Lot 4051. A purple-splashed Jun-glazed 'bubble' bowl, Song-Yuan dynasty (960-1368), 3 1/4 in. (8.2 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 700,000 - HKD 900,000. Price realised HKD 1,580,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2012

The bowl has rounded sides rising from a short straight foot. It is covered inside and out with a thick glaze of pale milky-blue tone thinning to lavender and then mushroom-brown at the mouth rim, with an irregularly-shaped splash of reddish-purple. The thick glaze on the exterior falls short of the foot to expose the pale brown stoneware; Japanese wood box.

Exhibited: David Lin & Co., From Subtlety to Splendor, Taipei, 2004, pl. 25 

Note: The prominent splashes of purple, red or green on Jun-glazed wares were produced by potters who deliberately added copper to the glaze. Datable examples of Jun-glazed bowls with splashes were found in the tomb of Feng Daozhen (d. 1265) near Datong, Shanxi, excavated in 1958, and illustrated in Wenwu, 1962, no. 10, pp. 34-42, figs. 7-10.

Small Jun-glazed bowls with splashes both on the inside and out are highly sought after. Examples of 'bubble' bowls, mostly of below 9 cm. in diameter, include one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Porcelain of the Song Dynasty, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 246, pl. 222 (8.3 cm. diam.); another in the collection of the Percival David Foundation, now housed at the British Museum, illustrated by S. Pierson, Song Ceramics: Objects of Admiration, London, 2003, p. 61, pl. 20 (PDF 45B) (8.6 cm. diam.); one in the Metropolitan Museum, illustrated by S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1975, p. 87, no. 80 (50.145.316) (8.6 cm. diam.).

Small blue cup with splashed glaze, Northern Song dynasty, about AD 1000–1127, Jun ware, Yuxian, Henan province. Stoneware with opalescent blue and purple glazes. Height: 4,1 cm; Diameter: 8,5 cm - Diameter: 3,1 cm (base). Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, PDF 45 © Trustees of the British Museum

Small bowl, probably Jin dynasty (1115–1234), 12th–13th century. Stoneware with splashed blue glaze ("splashed Jun" ware). H. 1 5/8 in. (4.1 cm); Diam. 3 3/8 in. (8.6 cm). Bequest of Mary Stillman Harkness, 1950, 50.145.316 © 2000–2017 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Other examples are bowls illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection, Geneva, 1968, vol. 1, nos. A31 and A32 (both 8.5 cm. diam.); in the T.Y. Chao Private and Family Trust Collections, Part II, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19 May 1987, lot 209 (9.2 cm. diam.); and in the Edward T. Chow Collection, sold at Sotheby's London, 7 June 2000, lot 93 (9 cm. diam.). 

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 30 May 2012, Hong Kong, HKCEC Grand Hall