Guan ware brush washer, Hangzhou (Guan kiln), 12th century (1101 - 1200), China, Southern Song dynasty (AD 960-1127), stoneware, thrown, with blue crackled glaze; glazed base; glazed rim, 3.4 cm (height) - 11.8 cm (diameter). Lent by the Sir Alan Barlow Collection Trust., LI1301.48, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford © The University of Sussex

When the Song (AD 960–1279) lost the northern part of their empire to the Jin dynasty (1115-1234) and moved the capital south to Hangzhou in 1127, they also lost access to the best ceramic manufactories of the north. Official (guan) kilns were therefore set up in the capital to supply the court. Although they copied the finest wares of the north, notably ‘Ru’, with the southern materials the results were quite different and established a new style. Guan ware became so highly regarded that it has been imitated ever since.

The small piece is finely potted and richly glazed, the everted sides shaped in ten double-lobed foliations, which continue onto the footring, the base is domed on the inside, concave on the underside, where the glaze shows five small dot-shaped spur marks. The piece is otherwise fully covered with a rich bluish-grey glaze of extremely smooth texture, thinning to reveal the dark clay at the rim, and displaying an attractive even dark-stained crackle overall.