Page 18 - Chinese Ceramics the Linyushanren Collection Part 1 , Christie's

Lot 2818 Lot 2825 Lot 2820

Lot 2818 Jizhou tea bowls was created using a natural leaf, which was laid on top of the wet dark
A Very Rare Jizhou Leaf-Decorated Conical Tea Bowl glaze before the bowl was fired. During the oxidizing firing the leaf itself burnt away
Lot 2825 but some of the minerals in the leaves acted as fluxes, thinning the glaze where it is
A Very Rare Jizhou Tixi-Style Painted Meiping in contact with the leaf, while the phosphorous oxides in the leaf lightened the glaze.
Lot 2820 The result is a pale, but perfect ‘shadow’ of the leaf. Most of the leaves used on Jizhou
A Superb Jian ‘Hare’s Fur’Tea Bowl tea bowls, including the example in the current sale (Lot 2818), are from the pipal
tree (ficus religiosa), which is sacred to the Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religions. The
Buddha is believed to have become enlightened while sitting under a pipal tree. Tea
bowls decorated in this way were therefore especially prized by Buddhist adherents.
A further interesting technique used at the Jizhou kilns was to paint pale designs on
top of the unfired dark glaze. This can be seen on a rare meiping vase in the current
sale (Lot 2825). When the piece was fired, and the glaze flowed slightly, the designs
were rendered in softer focus, and the patterns, which were often akin to those seen on
carved tixi lacquers of the period, provided a pleasing richness of surface decoration.

Vessels for tea became increasingly important during the Song dynasty as tea
drinking grew in popularity among the elite and even at court.2 The Song Empeor
Huizong himself wrote a twelve chapter treatise on tea 大觀茶論 Daguan Cha Lun
(Discourses on tea in the Daguan era [AD 1107-1110]). Black tea bowls became
especially desirable as contests for making tea also became popular. Cai Xiang
( 蔡襄 AD 1012-67) in his Cha Lu ( 茶錄 Records of Tea), noted that: ‘The white froth
stands out best in a black tea bowl. Tea bowls made in Jian’an [in Fujian] were
glazed black and with streaks resembling hare’s fur. Their body is slightly thicker
than normal, and retains the heat for a long time. Hence they are the most suitable.’
Emperor Huizong also noted that black tea bowls from Fujian kept his tea longer.

Among the most famous of the Song dynasty black-glazed tea bowls are those
from the Jian kilns of Fujian, mentioned by Cai Xiang in the quotation above. The
Linyushanren Collection contains a number of fine Jian ware bowls. The body of
Jian wares had a high iron content, and the glaze was also overloaded with iron
- about 6%, while the maximum that a lime-based glaze can dissolve is around
5.5% - and the excess precipitated out. Many Jian wares had liquid-liquid phase-
separated glazes and the formation of little glass droplets in the glaze during

The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics 古韻天成 — 臨宇山人珍藏（一） 16