Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

The inscription on this bowl states that the piece was made in the second year of the Song dynasty (AD 960–1279) at Junzhou, but pieces of this type were not made until much later, and not at Junzhou in Henan but at Cizhou in Hebei. Moreover, the inscription is formulated in a manner not used in antiquity. For a related genuine bowl, inscribed with a poetic line, recovered from a Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) shipwreck in Ci county, Hebei province, see Kaogu [Archaeology], 1978, no.6, pl.6, fig.1.

The bowl is of low rounded form, with slightly flared rim, and straight foot, unevenly slanting towards the base. The rough, buff-coloured stoneware body is covered with a white slip applied in two layers, both leaving the lowest part of the outside, foot and base free. The first layer ends unevenly halfway down the sides, the second higher up. A transparent glaze is covering the inside and the upper third of the outside, turning the double layer of slip into a clear creamy white and reaching further down in uneven patches, which have turned into glassy greenish spots. The inside was inscribed under the glaze in iron brown with a dated inscription, enclosed by bands of uneven width below the rim.