Lot 98. A pair of 'Jizhou' 'tortoiseshell'-glazed bowls, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279). Diameter 4 1/2  in., 11.4 cm. Estimate 30,000 - 50,000 USD. Unsold. Photo: Sotheby's.

each with deep rounded sides rising to a slightly everted rim, covered overall with a dark brownish-black glaze and splashed with caramel-beige tones simulating tortoiseshell, the glaze stopping neatly above the short foot (2).

Note: Southern Song potters at Jiangxi province's Jizhou kilns developed this lively dappled glaze to apply to various forms of stoneware cups, bowls, and vases. Known in Chinese and English as 'tortoiseshell' glaze, it is characterized by an overall black-coffee color inflected with creamy tones ranging from deep amber to taupe, as seen on the present bowls. The effect seems to have been created by first dipping the vessel in a medium-brown slip glaze then, following the drying, dipping it in a darker brown glaze slurry, splashing it with a paste of wood or bamboo-ash and water, drying it again, and finally firing it right side up in the saggar.