Page 96 - Chinese Ceramics the Linyushanren Collection Part 1 , Christie's

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A VERY RARE JIZHOU LEAF-DECORATED
CONICAL TEA BOWL
SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY (1127-1279)
The bowl is delicately potted with wide flared sides. The interior is
decorated near the centre with the gossamer imprint of a brownish-buff leaf
against a dark-brown glaze that thins to an amber colour at the rim and ends Song dynasty, Jizhou housed more than fifty Zen Buddhist Monasteries.
above the shallow ring foot exposing the buff body.
6¡ in. (16.3 cm.) diam., Japanese wood box
HK$800,000-1,200,000 US$110,000-160,000
南宋 吉州窯木葉盌
EXHIBITED
Christie’s, The Classical Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song
Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 22 to 27 November
2012; New York, 15 to 20 March 2013; London, 10 to 14 May 2013,
Catalogue, no. 41
LITERATURE
Christie’s, The Classical Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song
Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 2012, pp. 108-109,
no. 41
Rosemary Scott, ‘Chinese Classic Wares from a Japanese Collection: Song
Ceramics from the Linyushanren Collection’, Arts of Asia, March-April
2014, pp. 97-108, fig. 12
This type of leaf decoration is the most iconic and daring artistic creation Mowry in Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Patridge Feathers: Chinese Brown-
in Jizhou kilns, revered by both Chinese and Japanese connoisseurs. As
discussed by Robert Mowry, such decoration was created by affixing a
leaf to the interior of a bowl and then immersing the bowl in the dark
brown glaze slurry. When fired in the kiln, chemical reactions robbed the
leaf of its dark brown colour rendering it transparent. The end result was
a ghostly impression of the leaf structure, typically golden amber or pale
yellow in colour. It is important to note that during the firing, edges of
The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics 古韻天成 — 臨宇山人珍藏（一）
the leaf were often burnt curled, which caused an incomplete impression.
A successful execution of the leaf decoration as represented by the present
piece is rare.
The idea of perpetuating a perishable leaf on an enduring object embodies
various philosophical thoughts, in particular, Zen Buddhism. Jiangxi is the
common home of five clans and seven schools of the Zen Buddhism. In
During the Kamakura period (1185-1333), Japanese disciples of Zen
Buddhism brought home the Buddhism laws together with tea drinking
habit and fine utensils. Tea bowls such as the present example are still
highly praised in Japan today and are termed Konoha Tenmoku.
The conical form such as the current ‘leaf’ bowl is the most revered type
of Jizhou ‘leaf’ bowls. A similar Jizhou ‘leaf’ bowl, classified as Important
Cultural Property, is in The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, is
illustrated by Asahi Shimbun, Song Ceramics, Tokyo, 1999, p. 117, no. 79.
Another bowl of this type in the National Palace Museum collection is
illustrated in Songci tezhan mulu (Illustrated Catalogue of Song Ceramics),
Taipei, 1978, p. 50, no. 20. Other comparable bowls include one in
the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated in in The Charles B. Hoyt
Collection in the Museum of Fine Arts: Boston, Vol. II, Boston, 1972, no.
131; and one decorated with a three-pronged leaf, illustrated in Mayuyama
Seventy Years, Tokyo, 1976, vol. 1, p. 225, no. 677. More numerous are
bowls with rounded sides, such as the small ‘leaf’ bowl unearthed from a
tomb dated to the second year of the Kaixi reign (1206) in Shangrao city,
Jiangxi province, illustrated in the Zhongguo chutu ciqi quanji (Complete
Collection of Ceramic Art Unearthed in China), Beijing, 2008, vol.
14, p. 54; and a similar small bowl in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum,
Harvard University Art Museums, discussed and illustrated by Robert
And Black-Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1996, p.
261, no. 108. Compare also a small number of rare examples of Jizhou
bowls that are decorated with more than one leaf, such as one from the
Art Institute of Chicago, illustrated in Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Patridge
Feathers: Chinese Brown-And Black-Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, op. cit.,
p. 260, no. 107; and another example in the Baur Collection, Geneva,
illustrated by John Ayers in The Baur Collection: Chinese Ceramics, Geneva,
1968, vol. 1, no. A67.
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