Yaozhou stoneware bowl with impressed decoration

A thinly potted stoneware bowl of conical form, supported on a low foot, the deeply rounded sides flaring outwards at the rim. The interior of the bowl is mould-impressed with a design of overlapping petals, centred on a scaled-down version of the same design at the bottom of the bowl.  The exterior is scored with a band of vertical lines.  The bowl is entirely covered in a translucent olive-green glaze, which pools to a slightly darker tint in the recesses.  The underside of the foot is partly unglazed, showing the fine grey stoneware.

•  The superb technical skills of the potters working at the Yaozhou kilns in Shaanxi province are evident in the clearly defined designs on this bowl, which are impressed with a mould, but to the naked eye appear carved with a knife. A slightly larger bowl with the same design is in the Qing Court collection at the Palace Museum, Beijing.1

1. The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum Vol. 32 (Hong Kong 1996) no. 146, page 160