A small black glazed bowl with metallic 'oil spot' decoration, Jin dynasty (1115-1234)
Lot 68. A small black glazed bowl with metallic 'oil spot' decoration, Jin dynasty (1115-1234); 3 3/8in (8.5cm) diam. Estimate US$ 3,000 - 5,000 (€ 2,700 - 4,400). © Bonhams.
Subtly formed with an indented lip on the exterior walls that curve inward to a neatly cut foot ring and shallowly recessed base, the lustrous black glaze marked throughout with minute silvery 'oil spots' and thinning to a russet hue along the rim, a dark purple slip covering all unglazed surfaces except for tiny patches that reveal the underlying pale gray clay fabric.
Provenance: Property from a San Francisco Estate.
Note: The minute silvery 'oil spots' and the purple dressing on the unglazed surfaces of this bowl are characteristics of bowls fired at the Xiaoyu cun kilns at Huairen, Shanxi province. For examples in the collection of the Arthur M. Sackler museum, Harvard university Art Museums, see Robert D. Mowry, Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers: Chinese Brown- and Black- Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Cambridge, 1996, nos. 43a & b and no. 44, pp. 148-152.
Bonhams. Fine Asian Works of Art, San Francisco, 25 Jun 2019, 10:00 PDT