Jizhou ware

Forms, use and context#

The heritage record dates it from the late Tang to a peak in the Southern Song and decline after the Yuan, and credits the Southern Song with paper-cut appliqué decoration. Partridge and hare's-fur patterns also appear. The kiln site is nationally protected (2001) and the craft was listed in 2014.

Glazes#

Methods#

1. Decoration Sprinkled glaze, paper cut, appliqué, carving away, stamping, painting, incising and modelling.¹

Typical objects#

Look inside the Southern Song Jizhou bowl in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (29.100.223). Six-petalled flowers stand out against the glaze. Another bowl in the collection carries a leaf design (29.100.220).^{29.100.22329.100.220PDF 90–92}

The exhibition catalogue illustrates two different ways to make flowers stand out inside a bowl. On no. 36 the potter painted a plum branch in white against a dark ground. On no. 37 cut paper protected the dark glaze beneath the motifs when a lighter glaze was applied.^{nos. 36–37, pp. 110–113}

Try reading the outside and inside separately. No. 38 has tortoiseshell-like mottling on the outer wall. Inside, the catalogue identifies a paper-cut band of leaves below the rim and two flowering plum sprigs.^{no. 38, pp. 114–115}

The catalogue assigns bowl no. 35 to the Jizhou kilns of Jiangxi and records its discovery in 1954 in a Northern Song tomb at Beisha, Henan. The kiln attribution and the excavated findspot answer different questions about the same bowl.^{no. 35, pp. 108–109}

Periods#

1. late Tang – YuanBegan in the late Tang, flourished in the Five Dynasties, peaked in the Southern Song, declined after the Yuan.¹

Kiln sites#

Heritage listings#

Related#