Lot 28. A rare Henan black-glazed 'oil-spot' bowl, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234); 12.6 cm, 5 in. Estimate: 500,000 - 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,071,000 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

well potted with steep sides rising from a short foot to a gently flared rim, covered overall save for the footring with a rich and glossy dark brown glaze infused with a tinge of moss-green, liberally splashed with silvery-brown and black mottles, the unglazed footring revealing the pale buff body, Japanese wood box.

Note: This exquisite bowl is striking for its thick and lustrous dark brown glaze which is enlivened by unevenly scattered small silver speckles. These attractive speckles are seldom found on bowls of this type, and thus make this piece very special and rare. Carefully applied with a finger or small brush, they were made with an iron-saturated slip, which crystallised in the kiln and turned silvery during the cooling phase. This technique was most likely inspired by the yuteki (‘oil-spot’) tea bowls made at the Jianyang kilns in Fujian province, whose products peaked in popularity in the Northern Song period.    

Bowls of this form and with silver speckles are very rare and no other closely related example appears to have been published, although a black-glazed bowl of conical form with silvery speckles is offered in this sale, lot 97. Compare also a pair of bowls of conical form with lipped rims, decorated with large silvery mottles in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, included in the Museum’s exhibition Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell and Partridge Feathers. Chinese Brown- and Black-Glazes Ceramics, 400-1400, Cambridge, cat. no. 45a and b