Tea bowl with hare's-fur markings,

13th century

13th century

Asia, China, Fujian Province

Conical shaped tea bowl with body rising to a slightly finger-grooved rim. Glaze covering the interior and most of exterior where it runs down leaving the knife-cut foot, base and lower section exposed with characteristic dark purplish-brown body. Mouth rim is covered in the thin reddish brown remainder of the russet glaze that has drained from the thick formed rim.

The Jian kilns were active at Shuiji, near Jianyang, in northern Fujian province. They were known for hare's-fur dark glaze ware that were "intended for local domestic use, and must have found a place in most households, and it was used locally in the Ch'an Buddhist monasteries, because this was how the Japanese came to acquire so many examples" (Margaret Medley, The Chinese Potter, p. 162). According to Robert Mowry, Hare's Fur, Tortoishell, and Partridge Feathers, p. 30: "The Jian kilns initially produced humble wares for a local market; their tea bowl's rise to prominence parallels the rise of Fujianese tea," which was a frothy, whisked milk-white beverage that looked its best in dark bowls. Jian ware is characterized by hard, coarse grained, slate gray clay that usually fires purplish brown, covered inside and two thirds of outside with a thick iron oxide glaze, and thinly glazed lip. Bowls were fired in saggars, stacked one on top of the other, each bowl raised on a small fireclay button to raise it off the bottom.