Timeless Artifact

Chernysh Family Estate Collection

Measurements with stand: 3-3/4″ Height X 6-1/2″ Diameter

Measurements without stand: 2-5/8″ Height X 6-1/2″ Diameter

With this absolutely exquisite Junyao Narcissus Bowl, we find the earliest such bowl we have ever seen or authenticated, and it should be considered one of the truly oldest Narcissus Bowls in existence today. While the Junyao Kiln is considered by many to have started with the Song Dynasty in exactly the year 960 CE, we would have to question that to a great degree. Written history and the claims that certain potteries and glazes came during such an exacting period, to us, seem more stories for history books and general explanations than we actually find when looking at authentic period artifacts. In short, the fabulous glazes of this period, and any other, were not just created on just one day, or even over the period of one year, but rather were extenuations of glaze experimentations dating back hundreds of years, and giving credit to those who came before, with their constant vigilance in experimentation; this should be explored much more in depth than it is today. Granted, the Song Dynasty did favor certain “Royal Kilns”, and the wonderful pieces of the Ruyao and Junyao kilns (and others) were certainly among those favored by the Royalty of the period. We have seen it written that only thirty-six pieces of Junyao ware were allowed to be built in any given year during the Song Dynasty, and commoners were forbidden to own it. Of this we are also doubtful. Perhaps as the kiln gained Imperial favor during the the beginning of the Song Dynasty this could have been true, but later in the period, we believe, many more than just thirty-six pieces were made by this famous kiln site. From what we have seen in 12Th – 13Th Century pieces, when the kilns were numbered up to ten (as high as we have seen), it seems somewhat incredible to have ten kilns producing only thirty-six pieces of Junyao ware. As to the declared ‘fact’ that the several different glazes ~ the white ‘phosphorus’, the blues, the purple ‘splashes’ and exquisite iron red glazes, were all developed (each taking a different thickness and firing heat to produce, for the high-copper-content glaze), in a period of one year, strains the imagination and seems more than a bit too simplified. While anything is possible, we will present here what to us, seems much more realistic and logical, given the science of clay formulations and qualities and applications of each, and the science of glaze formulations, with their multitude of variations of mineral compositions, hardness, firing ranges and environments, fuel factors, and numerous other technical (and not so technical) components of glazed pottery creation.

In the above three photographs, we are starting to see some of the first signs of an extremely early Junyao ware of the beginning of the Song Dynasty Period. As will be explained in later photographs, the white with blue ‘phosphorus’ glazes had already been on their path to perfection during the Tang Dynasty period (618 – 960 CE). The particular type of brilliant ‘iron red’, as seen on the exterior of this exquisite bowl, begins to make its appearance during the very early Song Dynasty Era. Later, in the 11Th – 12Th Century period, we believe this iron red gave way to more of the classic blues and purples, as we do not see this brilliant red from the later periods of the Song Dynasty, and indeed, it seems to have been ‘re-discovered’ during the Qing Dynasty in their famous Iron Red Porcelains of the period. The wonderful ‘orange peel’ texture of the exterior red glaze can be easily discerned in the photographs above, as well as the beginnings of the Song Dynasty simplicity of shape, of which the Song Dynasty artisans were (and alway will be) the true masters, along with their exquisite glazings, which make them my own personal favorites of all Chinese porcelains and proto-porcelains. The fact that the original piece was broken from its sagger at the bottoms of the the legs, with no polishing or trimming around the feet, is another indication of an extremely early work (as will be better shown in the following microscopic photographs). Additionally, that this narcissus bowl stands on three very simple legs, added after to replace the ones that broke off  (much like an old Bronze Ding, made for Royalty since the Shang Period), is another indicator of an older period piece (in the later 11-Th – 12Th century Narcissus bowls, we see the later style of the three Lianzhu Fungus feet). The wonderful drip we see on the inner edge of the bottom rim is representative of a quality that has always been considered a most desirable trait on Song Dynasty glazed porcelains, and remains today as one of the most sought-after features of truly great pieces.

The custom-made rosewood stand in the three photographs above easily attests to the time period when this marvelous bowl was exhumed from the ground. It is, in our opinion, an 1800′s era stand that was custom-made to fit the bowl after it was removed from its original burial place, and the bowl’s legs fit on this stand in one position only. In the last photo above, we can see the obvious, natural ‘shelf wear’ the wooden stand has endured over time. These wonderful Song Dynasty buried items were not the same as we find in the Tang Dynasty, as by the the time of the Song Dynasty, the ‘excesses’ of burial items had been outlawed, and Song Dynastic funeral pieces exhibit a much cruder look than their elaborate predecessors from the Tang Dynasty. Rather, the finest of the Song Dynasty burial items were cache-buried to hide the best of their National and Royal Treasures from the advancing Mongols, who later set up the short-lived Yuan Dynasty. As the Northern Song culture was progressively overrun by the Mongols, the people systematically buried their finest treasures, and even common household storage jars; we have some original jars with their original contents of sorghum and coal oil, and even the straw and cloth stoppers and original Song period woven strings remain attached. The main purpose of showing the old, custom-made rosewood stand is to establish, at minimum, when the item first was unburied, and as it has been incontestably in the Naples, Florida USA area since long before the UNESCO treaty with China, it is a legal and very desirable early Junyao Narcissus Bowl.

In our last two full, close-up photographs above (before we start the microscopic examination), we would like to explain a bit more about the progression of glazes in China in general. As stated earlier, glazes did not just appear overnight, in any period throughout Chinese history (or any other, for that matter). There was always a progression, with much experimentation, from the earliest ‘true glazes’ in the world, most likely dating from the end of the Shang Period to the beginning of the Western Zhou Period. There is so much left to be learned about the early exploration of this unique Chinese form of decoration of common pottery items, that we believe we will never see everything fully unveiled in our lifetime. Just a few years ago, the plain pottery items themselves were only known to have existed in China back to the earlier years of the Neolithic Period (approximately 6,500 BCE), and now they have definitively dated pottery items back to almost 20,000 BCE. As information from more archeological digs, and the knowledge they provide, becomes more accessible and contributory to the public database, the more we will understand about the cultures and environments that produced  them; this is as with every culture studied (the likes of which often first start out with what now seem ludicrous speculations, such as early Clovis man only living in Clovis, New Mexico, USA ~ now, Clovis points have been found in every state of the US and as far south as Oaxaca, Mexico ~ and they are currently ‘building the bridge’ to Europe. The same happens with Chinese glazes. There were times of expansion and broad experimentation (with the 350 CE through to the late 18Th Century period being the most productive, from our standpoint), and times where there were natural digressions, due to war, famine, or other non-supportive periods in their history. But, the overall growth in quality and advancement of technique is hardly questionable. What you are seeing in the above two photographs is the white and blue that is well-known to have been established in the Tang Dynastic period, and can be found on Tang brown-ware with the white and blue phosphoric splashes, and the purple splashes which were not found during the Tang era. These represent a melange of techniques developed at differing times, and incorporated together. This took time, experimentation, and ingenuity, which did not happen on a selected date on a calendar.

In these first three microscopic photographs of this article, we are showing the bottom of one the three ding-style legs on the narcissus bowl. All microscopic photographs will be shown at 10X, 20X, and 30X respectively, as they are the most common of the loupe powers used, and with the wider field of vision from our microscope, will allow the viewer to see very clearly what we wish to identify as age and authentication indicators. In the first photo above, we can see the impurities in what was considered ‘pure’ porcelain. The vessel was fired high enough to vitrify the proto-porcelain, yet still does not have the that ring of a later, higher-temperature-fired piece. Still, this is quite a high firing for the period, as many other kilns in China did not reach this type of vitrification until a bit later in their time-frames. The fact that the legs were broken directly off the sagger, leaving jagged edges, is also an indication of an earlier firing of Junyao ware. The bottoms of all three legs have been smoothed by wear over time, yet there are many areas around the feet which show the result of jagged snapping-off of the legs, where the glaze flowed down and then adhered to the sagger.

In the three microscopic photographs above, we are showing a top indicator of true age which is very difficult to see with only the usual 10X power loupe. Porcelains and glazes can be extremely hard (ie:  porcelain knife sharpeners are very effective), and we have a Song Dynasty Cizhou shipwreck bowl with the bottom covered in coral growth, and yet, if viewed with a 10X loupe (even after rolling in sandy silt for hundreds of years), the inside looks like it was made yesterday. It really takes a higher power to start to see some of the anomalies which occur to high-fired porcelains over time. It the first photo above, we see two scratches to the red outer portion of the narcissus bowl which look as if they could have been made around the same time period – both looking jagged, which is an indicator of a newer scratch. However, in the second and the third photos, we start to see under higher magnification the differences between the two scratches. In all three photos, we see the scratch to the viewer’s left is jagged, like a new scratch, but under 20X power, the scratch to the right not only begins to look smoothed, but it also shows oxidation iridescence. The same can be seen in the last photo above, with the tip of the right scratch being at the bottom of the photo. The scratch to the viewer’s left was most likely made after the narcissus bowl was removed from burial, and the one to the right, prior to its burial. Minuscule cleaning scratches also start to show up between the natural crazings in the last photo at 30X power.

In the three photographs above, the use-wear (scratching) on the narcissus bowl is much more easily discerned. This is a particularly roughed-up area of the top rim which took a lot of abrasion over the period of time when the bowl was used. Some parts of the rim have much less abrasion, and this area shown may be just a particularly high spot of the rim which took more abrasion. What is most definite in the photos above is the different types of scratching and the differing depths to which these original period-scratches go. Some are deeply scratched, and some are just minor cleaning scratches, but the fact that they run in all different directions is an indicator of true age-wear. These are not the intentional sanded areas we find on modern replications, nor the marks from pieces being carried back and forth to market. Natural wear always looks natural, and old Song Dynasty pottery items have some natural wear because they were used items. It is true that some piece were collected for display during the Song Period, but even those that were rarely used, or used only on special occasions, still were cleaned from time to time, and will, under higher powers, show their natural scratching from use and cleaning. If a piece shows none, or very little wear (and usually on the interior bases of bowls from stacking, and taking them to market), they should be considered highly suspicious. It is also somewhat safe to assume that a narcissus bowl, used for 200-300 years, before being rapidly cache-buried ahead of invading forces, would see more use wear than one from the later Northern Song Dynasty period.

The three microscopic photos above were taken on the interior of the narcissus bowl in a area where the white glaze is the heaviest. Most of the naturally-occurring damage from burial conditions is exhibited on the white portion of the glaze on the interior of this bowl. Best seen in photograph one, the areas with the heaviest glaze loss are the portions where the deeply infused bubbles (so common to the Junyao kiln items) are now exposed, and soil has intruded. The more shiny areas, with no open bubbles, are the original surface of the glaze. We have seen the same type of glaze loss on deeper, exterior white ‘phosphorous splashes’ on Tang Dynasty ewers. Whether or not it is caused from a higher firing temperature in a more naturally thick area of the glaze, we do not yet know. The cause would probably be best known in China, but as yet we have not seen anything in publication as to why this effect occurs (there are some 200,000 relevant publications written in Chinese that have yet to be translated to English). In the photos above, we can easily see the glaze loss areas, the original penetration of burial soils, and the fact that the the white-glazed areas flow over the tops and around the sides of the underlying naturally blue areas of glaze. We expect this is a result of the combination of factors; the depth of the glaze, temperature, and the mineral compounds which make up these marvelous Junyao kiln glazes. This white glaze effect, to the best of our knowledge, is also found mostly on the earlier pieces of the Tang and Song Dynasties, as we do not see this thick white sheen of glaze on later items we have seen, both in publications and under personal microscopic study.

In the three microscopic photographs above, we are looking at an area best seen in the third photograph of this article, as the portion which lies between the brighter blue area at the bottom and the large purple splash portion above it. It is an area that would best be described here in the US as a “robin’s egg” color. What we are looking at is one of the great indicators of true Song Dynasty Junyao authenticators; it is these areas which lie between the cracks, of which we have not seen a replication ever having been made. It is these thick areas of whitened degradation to the originally small crazing cracks that we find on truly old Song burial pieces. The bowl must have sat upright during its burial, with water collecting inside over hundreds of years; we believe that this is the main reason we find almost all the degradation to the inside of the narcissus bowl. These deep, side-to-side degradations to the original blue/green glazed portion of the bowl will also be explored in other microscopic photos of the different colors inside the bowl, but the fact that they do not occur on the exterior red portion tells us this bowl collected and held the water inside. The natural remaining soils from burial can also be easily seen in the photos above. It is also appropriate to note here that we have Junyao artifacts in our personal collection that exhibit the deep, side-to-side degradation right next to restored areas on the same piece of pottery; on one item, the restorers did a marvelous job of crazing the piece widely enough to be able to mimic the whitened degradation by rubbing some substance into the cracks, but there will never be the side-to-side degradation, such as what is seen above. The replicators also use this technique on many fine Tang Dynasty reproductions, crackling the glazes and rubbing into the fine cracks substances that are intended to mimic the potassium salts and mineralization, but without the consistent wear from tectonic scratching, and other indicating factors, these fine Tang Dynasty replications can be fairly readily discerned. The big trick in this is in not going so fast that one misses the authentication indicators of a restored item which has been over-glazed.

With the three microscopic photographs above, we are again looking down inside the narcissus bowl to the area of the brightest blue glazed portion, pooling at the bottom of the bowl. For some reason, we suspect due to the way the blue glaze pooled around the slighter higher mound in the center of the base, forming a thicker layer, this area degraded less than the white and purple crazed areas inside the remainder of the bowl. However, we can still see some of the side-to-side degradation to the cracked areas in the three photos above. This portion of the glazed interior also shows us the best views of the highly infused bubbles, most likely because of its glaze depth. This area has beautiful, natural oxidation iridescence, as well as a minor triangular glaze loss, which can easily be seen in all three photographs.

The three microscopic photographs above show a particular area in the purple slash portion on the interior of the narcissus bowl, which has an effect we had never seen before, which is of particular interest to us from an authentication standpoint. As can be easily discerned, this part of the glaze was much more stable than the whitened areas, and sustained much less degradation and glaze loss than the side with the white phosphorous glaze. However, we still find the deep side-to-side degradation to the cracked areas, but with one amazing difference – the color of the purple splash somehow continued to spread through the whitened degradation over the hundreds of years of burial. In some areas of the photographs above, it appears that the red flows right through the white and could actually be just under the surface, and reflecting back with the lighting. However, there are clear areas also shown (which can be extremely well-discerned under direct microscopic viewing), where the purple, copper-based glaze actually has continued to flow up and into the whitened degradation. The fact that the copper alloys were actually still traveling is much like the ion exchanges we see when viewing pseudomorphs and other anomalies in jade (which can be best seen in articles at Timeless Jade). This is a wonderful phenomena to have discovered on this marvelous early Song Dynasty Junyao Narcissus Bowl, and one not so unlikely, given the moist conditions and approximately 750 years of burial.

In the three microscopic photos above, we are looking at an area of extremely degraded white glaze that is exactly across from the purple splash area in the three preceding photos. This is a portion of the interior which is very high up toward the rim, and as a result, received the least amount of cleaning when it was removed from burial. This bowl, same as all our authenticated pieces, underwent both a long acetone bath and a very short oxalic acid bath to determine if any modern waxes or coatings had been applied. The only coating that showed up came with the ten-minute oxalic acid bath, as someone had put a modern spray wax coating on the piece, which came right off. The only other residue found was that of old bees-wax, which still remains, and was most likely put on the bowl during the time it was first cleaned of its potassium salts (as some minuscule areas remain). This bees-wax application is considered to be prior to the 1900 period, as it was not affected by the acetone at all, and remained its original color, with no whitening as more modern waxes do. The minute particles of wax were so old, they would not scratch off with a fingernail, and so we decided to leave them on as an authenticating factor. In the photos above, we can see how some of the ‘glassy’ surface of the white glaze remained intact, while other portions of it have flaked away, exposing the bubbles in the glaze below. We can also see the different, side-to-side detritus penetration in the cracks, best shown in photo three above at 30X power. The blue glaze under the white can also be seen, as in prior microscopic photographs above. What we love the most with this set of photographs is the penetration of the white glaze by soils and detritus, and even the minuscule, worn-out scratches that can be barely discerned upon the original surface (best seen in the 20X and 30X power photos).

In the three microscopic photographs above, we are again looking at the brilliant blue area, deep in the center of the narcissus bowl. This is an area which shows new cleaning scratches to the mineralized glaze. These minute scratches, and the mineralization, showed up after the ten-minute soaking in the weak oxalic acid solution, which dissolved the modern Pledge-like wax that had been applied in recent times. After this cleaning, the minerals could not be removed with either a further soaking in acetone, nor with a vigorous scrubbing with Tub and Tile Cleaner (which does a great job with recent accumulations of dust and grime). This left us with a wonderful view of the original mineral deposits on the bowl that had been left from its earlier cleaning (most likely with a weak vinegar solution) after removal from its burial site. The beautiful oxidation iridescence  can be seen best in the last two photos (it was very difficult to capture this iridescence on this particular bowl, as the fluorescent lighting around the microscope kept ‘washing-out’ the colors).  In the first photograph above at 10X power, the degradation to the cracking can be best seen, as can the soil and detritus penetration of the cracks. We can see in this area how much less the degradation effected it, as there is very little glaze loss, which is found much more in the white glazed areas.

With the three photos above, we are looking at an area on the iron red exterior portion of the narcissus bowl (this iron red portion is just breath-taking), which shows none of the side-to-side, white degradation to the crazed areas. Again, we believe this was a result of the bowl being buried upright and the moisture collecting inside, leading to much more interior degradation. If the bowl had been artificially aged, we would not be seeing the same types of effects shown with all the microscopic photographs. The outside of the iron red glaze simply did not have the moisture retention which occurred on the interior surface. We can also again see the mineralization to the exterior, which became apparent after the light oxalic acid bath, and the accompanying minor scratching from cleaning of these mineralized areas when the bowl was first removed from its place of burial.

With these last three microscopic photographs of this article, we are looking at a particular phenomena which was not discovered until after the final cleaning of the bowl, while I was taking the photographs for this article. Under a 10X power loupe it probably would never have been discovered. What we believe we are looking at here are traces of minerals (agreed upon by myself and Dr. Timothy Jones PhD) in the exterior glaze in the central portion of the indented base of the narcissus bowl. Due to the fact that we can not get a wide enough photograph of the glaze displaying the effect that we are going to explain here, which occurs over the entire base and portions of the sides, it can not all be seen here, but can be easily viewed in person under the microscope. It appears that these minute, linear mineral particles started lining up in relation to the earth’s magnetic field at the time, either during the firing, or during the cooling period just following, while the glaze was still in a fluid state. Some of these linear particles form lines that are over an inch long, and some form into complete circles, part of one which can be seen close to the bottom in the photographs above. Over these particles, you can see the the remaining mineralization over the surface of the glazed area. To see these particulates lining up in such a manner is truly a wonder to behold, and while this effect is not a new discovery, it is an extremely rare event.

In closing, we have no doubts as to the correct dating of this Royal piece of China’s history, and would encourage any qualified professional from China (and especially the Beijing Museum) to come and view it in person, as we truly believe, like many items in our collection and others we represent, that they should ultimately be returned home to be displayed with their mated pieces in the land where the culture first expressed and produced such genius and creativity. This wonderful Junyao Kiln Narcissus Bowl could well be one of only thirty-six pieces allowed to have been made for the Royal family in the early 10Th Century.

David Fredericks — Yulongwei

Timeless Artifact

Timeless Jade