Lot 104. A 'Jian' 'hare's fur' 'temmoku' tea bowl, Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). Estimate 60,000 — 80,000 USD. Photo Sotheby's

solidly potted with deep rounded sides rising from an evenly shaped, shallow foot, with a groove below the lip, covered inside and out with a lustrous blackish-brown glaze finely streaked with iridescent 'hare's fur' markings that stop irregularly above the foot exposing the chocolate-brown body, the rim bound in white metal, later Japanese lacquer cup stand, Japanese wood box (4). Diameter 5 3/8  in., 13.6 cm

Notes: This bowl represents the classic form of tea ware produced during the Song dynasty at the kilns in Jianyang, Fujian province. Made for both imperial and local consumption, as well as for export to Japan, black tea bowls were particularly appreciated in Buddhist monasteries, where tea was drunk for its beneficial effect on body and mind as well as ritually offered to the Buddha. The seemingly humble aspect of bowls of this type made them particularly appropriate in this context. The groove below the rim made them comfortable to hold, their heavy potting had an insulating effect, keeping the tea inside hot while protecting the fingers outside from the heat, and their dark interiors made for a striking contrast with the white froth of whipped tea.

Black-glazed tea bowls were highly sought after in Japan, where they are known as temmoku (or tenmoku), because of their association with the monasteries in the Tianmu (in Japanese, 'Temmoku') mountain range in Lin’an county, north Zhejiang province, still famous for its Tianmu tea. They were revered for their striking black glazes, which displayed various different effects, created when air bubbles in the glaze burst. The best known and most characteristic glaze features rust-brown streaks, such as the present piece, known in Japanese as nogime. 

A wide range of different temmoku bowls is published in Tōbutsu temmoku [Import commodity ‘temmoku’], Chadō Shiryōkan, Kyoto, 1994, including some of the finest examples preserved in Japan, as well as bowls excavated in Fujian province. Among the former, most closely reminiscent to the present bowl, is a bowl in the Kyoto National Museum, pl. 12. 

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 13 sept. 2016, 10:30 AM