A VERY RARE PERSIMMON-GLAZED BOWL

Jiajing six-character mark and of the period

Footnotes

明嘉靖 紫金釉碗
青花「大明嘉靖年製」楷書款

Provenance: Meiyintang collection, no.704 (label)
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5 October 2011, lot 10
The Li Fan Thompson collection, London

Published and Illustrated: R.Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol.2, London, 1994, no.704.

來源： 玫茵堂舊藏，編號704（據標籤）
香港蘇富比，2011年10月5日，拍品10
範麗收藏，倫敦

著錄： 康蕊君，《玫茵堂中國陶瓷》，卷2，倫敦，1994年，編號704

The Meiyintang Collection (玫茵堂), founded by brothers Stephen Zuellig (1917–2017) and Gilbert Zuellig (1918–2009), both born in Manila, reflects their lifelong passion for Asian art, fostered through their business ventures in the Far East. Celebrated for its exceptional quality, the collection encompasses an extraordinary array of Chinese ceramics and bronzes. It is widely regarded as one of the most significant private holdings of Chinese porcelain in the Western world.

This bowl is covered in a persimmon glaze, also known as 'purple-gold glaze' (zijin you 紫金釉), a high-temperature glaze with iron as the colourant. As early as the Song dynasty, many kilns in northern China were already producing ceramics with this glaze. The production of purple-gold glaze ceramics continued in Jingdezhen during the Ming dynasty, with notable improvements in quality. The glaze exhibits a restrained sheen and a smooth, lustrous surface, exemplifying the refined firing techniques of the time. However, due to the challenges of achieving a successful firing, the production yield was low, making surviving examples exceedingly rare.

See a similar persimmon-glazed bowl, Jiajing six-character mark and of the period, in the Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Minji Meihin Zuroku: Kaiseiyō, Ryukeiyō, Manrekiyō (Illustrated Catalogue of Important Ming Porcelains: Jiajing, Longqing, and Wanli Wares), Tokyo, 1978, pl.35. A related persimmon-glazed bowl, Jiajing six-character mark and of the period is also in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pl.56.