The Barlow Collection
A select catalogue of the Barlow collection of Chinese Ceramics, Bronzes and Jades by the University of Sussex (published Sussex, 2006).
Publications online: 456 objects
Black ware tea bowl with auspicious inscription
- loan
-
Literature notes
The conical bowl has an angle below the rim, with a groove on the outside below the flared lip, and another angle above the nearly solid, straight-cut foot, which shows a very shallow footring. The piece is made of nearly black-firing stoneware, covered with a glossy brownish black glaze which stops at the angle outside, leaving the lowest part exposed in the biscuit. It has faint brownish ‘hare’s fur’ markings at the rims both inside and out. The rim is bound in silver, and the inside is painted in silver with the wish shou shan fu hai (‘mountains of longevity, oceans of happiness’ or ‘longevity [eternal as] the mountains, happiness [vast as] the oceans’), each character enclosed in a lobed medallion on a ground of dense vertical stripes and with a small stylized floret in the centre. The silver is largely rubbed and remaining only as a matt ‘ghost’. -
Details
- Associated place
-
Asia › China › Fujian province › Jian kilns (place of creation)
- Date
-
12th - 13th century (1101 - 1300)
Southern Song Dynasty (1127 - 1279)
- Material and technique
- stoneware, thrown, with black and brown iron glazes; unglazed base; silver rim
- Dimensions
-
6.3 cm (height)
13 cm (diameter)
- Material index
- Technique index
- Object type index
-
container › vessel › bowl › drinking-bowl › tea-bowl,
- No. of items
- 1
- Credit line
- Lent by the Sir Alan Barlow Collection Trust.
- Accession no.
- LI1301.171
-
Further reading
University of Sussex, and Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Barlow Collection, supervised by Regina Krahl, Maurice Howard, and Aiden Leeves (Sussex: University of Sussex, 2006), no. C157
Glossary
stoneware
-
stoneware
Ceramic material made of clay which is fired to a temperature of c.1200-1300⁰c and is often buff or grey in colour.
Location
-
- currently in research collection
Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.
Publications online
-
The Barlow Collection
The conical bowl has an angle below the rim, with a groove on the outside below the flared lip, and another angle above the nearly solid, straight-cut foot, which shows a very shallow footring. The piece is made of nearly black-firing stoneware, covered with a glossy brownish black glaze which stops at the angle outside, leaving the lowest part exposed in the biscuit. It has faint brownish ‘hare’s fur’ markings at the rims both inside and out. The rim is bound in silver, and the inside is painted in silver with the wish shou shan fu hai (‘mountains of longevity, oceans of happiness’ or ‘longevity [eternal as] the mountains, happiness [vast as] the oceans’), each character enclosed in a lobed medallion on a ground of dense vertical stripes and with a small stylized floret in the centre. The silver is largely rubbed and remaining only as a matt ‘ghost’. -
The Barlow Collection
The conical bowl has an angle below the rim, with a groove on the outside below the flared lip, and another angle above the nearly solid, straight-cut foot, which shows a very shallow footring. The piece is made of nearly black-firing stoneware, covered with a glossy brownish black glaze which stops at the angle outside, leaving the lowest part exposed in the biscuit. It has faint brownish ‘hare’s fur’ markings at the rims both inside and out. The rim is bound in silver, and the inside is painted in silver with the wish shou shan fu hai (‘mountains of longevity, oceans of happiness’ or ‘longevity [eternal as] the mountains, happiness [vast as] the oceans’), each character enclosed in a lobed medallion on a ground of dense vertical stripes and with a small stylized floret in the centre. The silver is largely rubbed and remaining only as a matt ‘ghost’.
Notice
Object information may not accurately reflect the actual contents of the original publication, since our online objects contain current information held in our collections database. Click on 'buy this publication' to purchase printed versions of our online publications, where available, or contact the Jameel Study Centre to arrange access to books on our collections that are now out of print.
© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum