the deep flaring sides rising from a short straight foot to an everted rim, covered overall in a lustrous black glaze streaked to the interior and exterior with brown 'hare's fur' marks, falling short of the foot to reveal the brown body, the base inscribed with a single character.

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. Important Chinese Art, London, 7 november 2018, 10:30 AM