Chinese Qingbai bowl, Song (960 - 1279)

Chinese Qingbai bowl, Song (960 - 1279) - image 1
Chinese Qingbai bowl, Song (960 - 1279) - image 2
Chinese Qingbai bowl, Song (960 - 1279) - image 3

Chinese Qingbai bowl, Song (960 - 1279)

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Description

Chinese Qingbai bowl, Song (960 - 1279), rising from a narrow foot to an everted unglazed rim, decorated with a whitish-blue glaze and incised to the interior with boys playing amongst scrolling lotus and other flowers, the exterior left undecorated and the foot unglazed.

Diameter: 17.2cm. (6 3/4in.)

Condition: Hairline crack from rim approx. 6cm. (2 3/8in.)

Notes:
Qingbai wares, whose name translates to 'blue white', were developed in Jiangxi province during the Northern Song. The icy blue colour is caused by iron impurities in the glaze reacting with the smoky atmosphere of a reduction kiln. Dragon kilns (lungyao) were especially common in southern China, and relied on wood for fuel, which resulted a 'reducing' atmosphere where oxygen levels are lowered and metallic oxides convert to their reduced metallic state. Rims were sometimes left unglazed, as seen in this example, so that vessels could be stacked one on top of the other in the kiln without glaze fusing them all together.

Provenance: Weisbrod & Dy Ltd, New York.

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item details
Material and Technique Stoneware with Qingbai glaze
Origin Chinese
Period 15th Century and Earlier
Condition Very good
Diameter 17.2cm. (6 3/4in.)

Product REF: W747