Amber-glazed pottery bowl

A pottery bowl with deeply rounded sides rising from a high, straight foot and terminating in a rolled rim. The bowl is entirely undecorated and covered in a glaze of deep amber colour, except for the inside of the base, which has a thin cover of white glaze with green spots, leaving the footrim unglazed and revealing the finely grained buff pottery. Three small spur marks are visible in the interior of the bowl.

•  This confidently potted bowl relies on nothing other than its striking glaze for effect. The spur marks on the inside indicate that the piece was probably fired upside-down on three conical stilts; the slight pooling of the glaze at the rim would support this theory. The bright green spots on the inside of the base are curious; they are probably a firing accident rather than a deliberate attempt at decoration. A Liao pottery basin with similar amber glaze is in the collection of Umberto Draghi.1

1 Noppe, C. et al Art Chinois, Néolithique Dynastie Song, Collection Umberto Draghi, Musée Royal de Mariemont, Brussels, 1990, no. 67, p. 158