Page 40 - April 4 2017 Pavillion Sale Christies HK

PROPERTY FROM AN ASIAN PRIVATE COLLECTION This elegantly shaped bowl, graced by a myriad of iridescent spots
on the interior, belongs to a small group of Jian wares with an
44 especially fine and rare ‘oil spot’ glaze. Its relatively larger size with
A JIAN ‘OIL SPOT’ BLACK-GLAZED BOWL flaring mouth are also rather rare amongst Southern Song Jian
SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY (1127-1279) wares, which usually feature steeper walls and straighter mouth
rims. A comparable example is the renowned ‘oil spot’ temmoku
The bowl is elegantly potted with a wide flaring mouth rising from a bowl in the Sekaido Collection, which shares a similar shape and
short foot. It is covered overall with small silver ‘oil spots’ over a thick lustrous oil spots in the glaze.
black glaze, stopping above the foot exposing the purplish-brown
body. The great beauty of Jian wares lies in their glazes, which are fired
between 1250-1350ºC. The glaze is overloaded with iron and the
6Ω in. (16.5 cm.) diam., box excess precipitates out, creating the stunning visual effects in
the glazes. The Jian glazes are also liquid-liquid phase separated
HK$700,000-900,000 US$91,000-120,000 glazes and the formation of little glass droplets in the glaze during
phase separation helps to carry the excess iron to the surface. As
南宋 建窯油滴撇口盞 the droplets move to the surface and burst they produce the effect
known as ‘oil-spot’ and then, if the glaze is allowed to run, it carries
the burst droplets with it the effect of streaking that is known
as ‘hare’s fur’ is produced. Much rarer are the glaze effects with
spots, rather than streaks, and which required catching the glaze
at the point when the optimum spotting was achieved, but before
the glaze ran and created streaking.

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