Summer tea bowl

Jun wares, produced close to the Northern Song dynasty capital of Kaifeng, are related to the northern celadons and have a similar grey stoneware body. The distinctive features are their simple and formal shapes and the rich lavender-blue glaze derived from an iron oxide in the glaze and reduction firing. Later in the Song dynasty and more particularly in the Yuan period, copper was added to the glaze to produce contrasting splashes of red.

This tea bowl, serenely beautiful in the simplicity of its form, is treasured for its unusual colour - green, rather than the more typical Jun blue.