Jun ware at Eskenazi
Group of Glazed Stoneware Flowerpots, zhadou (cats. 16, 15 and 11), Ming dynasty, 15th century, Jun kilns, Henan province. Diameter of rims: 20 cm; height of each: 19 cm, 18.5 cm and 17.4 cm
Eskenazi Ltd will present a selling exhibition of 16 Jun ware objects at its 10 Clifford Street, London, gallery from 31 October to 22 November 2013. The exhibition will be a part of the 16th Asian Art in London (31 October to 9 November).
Jun ware is often described as one of the ‘Five Classic Wares’ (wu da yao) of the Song dynasty (960-1279). Jun is derived from the kiln near Juntai terrace, within the north gate of what was the Yuzhou prefecture in Henan province. The ceramics were produced there from the end of the Northern Song period (960-1127) to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).
Jun ware is noted for the beauty of its glaze that ranges from a classic thick opalescent sky blue to various mottled and streaked effects in tones of mauve, lavender and plum and green. Understanding how the glaze was created proved elusive until the late 1970s when it was discovered that the blue tone is not created by pigments at all but is actually an optical effect.
During firing the Jun glaze separates into light-scattering droplets of glass and when light passes through this ‘glass emulsion’ the blue spectrum of light is reflected, giving the ware its bluish hue.
This is the first Eskenazi exhibition to focus on a single kind of Chinese ware.
