Page 34 - Important Chinese Art, Sotheby's London May 15 2019

13

PROPERTY FROM THE RUI XIU LOU COLLECTION ‘Jian’ tea bowls such as the present piece along with a whole
range of black-glazed tea bowls derive their current designa-
A ‘JIAN’ ‘HARES-FUR’ BOWL
SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY tion tenmoku (or temmoku, Chinese tianmu) from these first
encounters that took place in the Song dynasty (960-1279),
of deep conical form, with a very slight groove below the notably in the Tianmu mountain range of Lin’an county,
lip and a shallow straight foot, covered overall with a thick north Zhejiang province. In Japan tenmoku tea bowls have
lustrous black glaze terminating in thick drops just above been admired, treasured and reverentially used in the tea
the unglazed foot showing the dark brown body beneath, ceremony ever since. Nogime [‘ear of grain’] is the Japanese
the interior and exterior suffused with light silvery ‘hares-fur’ term for the striations of the glaze that in China and the West
striations are likened to ‘hare’s fur.
12.7 cm, 5 in.
Tenmoku tea bowls are a case apart among Song dynasty
‡ £ 30,000-50,000 ceramics. No other kiln centre besides that of Jianyang in Fu-
HK$ 308,000-515,000 US$ 39,300-65,500 jian, which produced these black bowls, was bold enough to
limit its output to one single product. Other kilns, even if they
南宋 建窰黑釉兔毫茶盞 specialized in one type of ceramic, all produced a large vari-
ety of wares, in different qualities and shapes, for different
clients and functions. To concentrate on the manufacture of
black tea bowls reflects the strong demand for and immense
popularity of these wares.
Black wares from Fujian are mentioned and recommended
as tea bowls in poems and essays since the early Northern
Song period (960-1127), by scholars, see Feng Xianming,
Zhongguo gu taoci wenxian jishi (Annotated Collection of
Historical Documents on Ancient Chinese Ceramics), Taipei,
2000, p. 124, and Robert D. Mowry, Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell,
and Partridge Feathers, Harvard University Art Museums,
Cambridge Mass., 1996, p. 30.

32 Buyers are liable to pay both the hammer price (as estimated above) and the buyer’s premium together with any applicable taxes and Artist’s Resale Right (which will depend on the individual circumstanc-
es). Refer to the Buying at Auction and VAT sections at the back of this catalogue for further information.