Song dynasty stoneware bowl

Song dynasty Jian ware hare's fur tea bowl.

Jian ware is named for the original place of manufacture, Jian, in Fujian province. The glaze is very dark brown, approaching black, over a stoneware body; stopping short of the base in a magnificent thick treacly roll. There are many variations in the colour of the glaze. Streaks in lighter brown are referred to by the Chinese as hare’s fur.

The “hare’s fur” patterning in the glaze of this bowl resulted from the random effect of phase separation during early cooling in the kiln and is unique to this type of bowl.

It would have been fired, probably with several thousand other pieces, each in its own stackable saggar, in a single-firing in a large dragon kiln. One such kiln, built on the side of a steep hill, was almost 150 metres in length. The fact that Jian ware glazes were made with iron oxides indicates some feature about Chinese mining and mineral processing techniques, that the Chinese must have developed sophisticated techniques for working with iron by this time.

Originally there would have been a copper ring around the upper edge of the bowl.

The tea that was drunk at the time is comparable to matcha tea; green and foamy. For this reason the Chinese preferred dark glazed bowls to pour their tea - since this made the bright green colour of the tea stand out.