Page 234 - Sotheby's Asia Week March 2024 Chinee Art

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PROPERTY FROM A JAPANESE PRIVATE COLLECTION 南宋 建窰黑釉兔毫盞
A ‘JIAN’ ‘HARE’S FUR’ ‘TENMOKU’ BOWL,
SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY
metal-bound rim, Japanese wood box (3)
Diameter 4⅞ in., 12.3 cm
The humble appearance of tea bowls produced at the Jian
kilns in Fujian province made them appropriate for use in
Buddhist temples. Dramatically contrasting with the white
foam of whipped tea, these lustrous black-glazed tea bowls
soon gained popularity beyond monastic circles. The Song
Emperor Huizong (r. 1101-1125), well known for his love for
tea, stated that black-glazed tea bowls, especially those
decorated with ‘hare’s fur’ like the present example, were the
most desirable. These bowls were likely already brought to
Japan in the Kamakura period (1185-1333), when Japanese
monks discovered the art of ritual tea preparation at
Buddhist temples in southern China.
A similar bowl was included in the exhibition Karamono
temmoku [Chinese temmoku], MOA Art Museum, Atami,
1994, cat. no. 6. This exhibition catalogue, where several
important heirloom temmoku tea bowls preserved in
Japan were juxtaposed with a large sample of excavated
specimens from the kiln site, impressively documents the
wide range of qualities and the excellence of the examples
preserved in Japan. Another bowl with a similar glaze effect
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, was included
in the exhibition Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge
Feathers. Chinese Brown-and Black-Glazed Ceramics,
400-1400, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge,
1996, cat. no. 83. Other similar bowls include one preserved
in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession no. 故-
瓷-008624), and three other examples now in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession nos
29.100.230, 29.100.227, 17.179.2),
⊖ $ 30,000-50,000

464 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11410 465