Greenware bowl with floral decoration, Yaozhou kilns, 12th - 13th century (1101 - 1300), Jin Dynasty (1115 - 1234), stoneware, thrown, with press-moulded decoration under a green glaze; glazed base; glazed rim, 5.5 cm (height) - 12.5 cm (diameter). Lent by the Sir Alan Barlow Collection Trust., LI1301.288, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford © The University of Sussex

Bowls of this type belonged to the standard repertoire of the Yaozhou kilns (see Songdai Yaozhou yaozhi [Yaozhou kiln sites of the Song dynasty], Beijing, 1998, pl.XX, figs.3-6), but were equally copied by other kilns in the vicinity.

The bowl has slightly rounded, conical sides and an everted rim, set off with a distinct groove on the outside. The inside is moulded with a dense flower scroll pattern, the central bloom inscribed with the character wang (a family name), surrounded by a scroll with three fully opened blooms between three smaller ones, still partly closed and depicted in side view, among overall foliage. A band at the rim was left plain and the outside is undecorated. A grey-green glaze fully covers the piece except for the footring; foot and base have grit adhering.