Lot 8903. A rare large marked Jian 'hare's fur' bowl, Song dynasty (960-1279). d. 19.2 cm. Lot Sold 101,600 HKD (Estimate 40,000 - 80,000 HKD). © Sotheby's 2025

The dating of this lot is consistent with the result of Oxford Authentication Ltd thermoluminescence test no. P124f70.

Provenance: Sotheby's London, 7 November 2018, lot 56.

Note: A related bowl is published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (ll), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 209; and two others were included in the exhibition Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell and Partridge Feathers: Chinese Brown and Black-Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Mass., 1995-96, cat. nos 80 and 81.

The single character inscribed on the base of the present bowl may be intended to read wu (five) or zheng (regular); several Jian ware bowls and fragments with similar inscriptions are illustrated in James Marshal Plumer, Tenmoku: A Study of the Ware of Chien, Tokyo, 1972, pls 44-50 and 52.

Sotheby's. Arcade Sale | Hong Kong, 14 March 2025