Tea bowl in black glaze with leaf pattern, Jizhou ware, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)-China Archive

Image Number: K1B013950N000000000PAB
Dynasty: Southern Song dynasty
Category: Ceramics
Function: Container
Material: Minerals/Ceramics/
Description:
The tea cup is covered with black glaze, the mouth is inlaid with a copper edge, the inner bottom is slightly raised, and the inner wall is decorated with brown and yellow curled edges with dead leaf patterns, with dark and light streaks of yellow spots. The bottom foot is unglazed, and the body is coarse, loose and grayish yellow. The wall of the bowl shows the traces of blank drawing, and the shallow round foot has traces of stained glaze. The glaze is dark, and yellow brown eye pores occasionally appear. The black glazed bowl with paper-cut decals is a unique decorative technique created by Jizhou Kiln in Jiangxi Province. Decal patterns such as wood leaves, plum blossoms, dragons and phoenixes, or characters are common. Its glaze technique is prior to the application of iron containing black brown underglaze on the green ware, and then the treated brown yellow glazed wood leaves stained with lower iron content are stuck on the black glaze and fired at one time, thus producing interesting decoration of dead leaves on the black ground. The dead leaves appear faintly when sipping tea, which is interesting. This kind of wood leaf pattern, which has been studied by scholars, should be mulberry leaf pattern, which is related to the popularity of Zen tea ceremony in Baizhang Temple in Jiangxi. Baizhang Qinggui