Page 22 - Chinese Works of Art Chritie's Mar. 22-23 2018

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A JIAN ‘HARE’S FUR’ TEA BOWL Jian tea bowls were held in high esteem by the Song scholar-oficial class
SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY (1127-1279) and even the emperors. Cai Xiang (1012-1067), the famous calligrapher
and high oficial in the Northern Song court designated the ‘hare’s fur’ tea
The sides of the deep conical bowl round up slightly towards the silver-
bowls from Jian’an the most appropriate utensil in serving tea in his two-
mounted rim, and are covered with a lustrous black glaze streaked with fne
chapter treatise on tea entitled Cha lu (A Record of Tea). He believed the
bluish-silver ‘hare’s fur’ markings on the interior and exterior where the glaze
white tea looked best in black-glazed bowls and the slightly thicker wall of
ends in a thick line above the foot to expose the brown ware. Together with a
Jian wares help to retain the heat of tea. By the early twelfth century, the
red lacquer cup stand, 16th century, carved with foliate scroll.
connoisseurship of Jian tea bowls was further developed by the Emperor
The bowl 4√ in. (12.4 cm.) diam., the cup stand 6Ω in. (16.6 cm.), cloth pouch, Huizong (1082-1135). In his twenty-chapter treatise on tea, Daguan chalun
two Japanese wood boxes
(A Discourse on Tea in the Daguan Era) of 1107, the Huizong Emperor
(2)
commented that “the desirable colour of a tea bowl is bluish black and
the best examples display clearly streaked hairs.” The current bowl is
$30,000-40,000
representative of the best tea bowls of Song dynasty, judging by the
Huizong Emperor’s criteria.
A similar Jian ‘hare’s fur’ bowl from the Linyushanren Collection, was sold
at Christie’s Hong Kong, 2 December 2015, lot 2820.
南宋 建窯兔毫盞及明十六世紀剔紅盞托
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