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Jun ware
Jun ware (Chinese: 鈞窯; pinyin: Jūn yáo; Wade–Giles: Chün-yao) is a type
of Chinese pottery, one of the Five Great Kilns of Song dynasty ceramics.
Despite its fame, much about Jun ware remains unclear, and the subject of
arguments among experts. Several different types of pottery are covered by the
term, produced over several centuries and in several places, during the
Northern Song dynasty (960–1126), Jin dynasty (1115–1234) and Yuan dynasty
(1271–1368), and (as has become clearer in recent years) lasting into the early
Ming dynasty.[1] Jun wheel-thrown stoneware bowl
with blue glaze and purple splashes,
Some of the wares were popular, especially the drinking vessels, but others Jin dynasty, 1127–1234
seem to have been made for the imperial court and are known as "official Jun
wares"; they are not mentioned in contemporary documents and their dating
remains somewhat controversial. These are mostly bowls for growing bulbs or
flower-pots with matching stands, such as can be seen in many paintings of
scenes in imperial palaces.[2] The consensus that seems to be emerging, driven
largely by the interpretation of excavations at kiln sites, divides Jun wares into
two groups: a large group of relatively popular wares made in simple shapes
from the Northern Song to (at lower quality) the Yuan, and a much rarer group
of official Jun wares made at a single site (Juntai) for the imperial palaces in
the Yuan and early Ming periods.[3] Both types rely largely for their effect on
their use of the blue and purple glaze colours; the latter group are sturdy
Official Jun "streaked" hexagonal
shapes for relatively low-status uses such as flowerpots and perhaps
flowerpot and stand, Ming dynasty,
spitoons.[4] 1400–35

The most striking and distinctive Jun wares use blue to purple glaze colours,
sometimes suffused with white, made with straw ash in the glaze.[5] They often
show "splashes" of purple on blue, sometimes appearing as though random,
though they are usually planned. A different group are "streaked" purple on
blue,[6] the Chinese describing the streaks as "worm-tracks". This is a high-
prestige stoneware which was greatly admired and often imitated in later
periods. But colours range from a light greenish-brown through green to blue
and purple. The shapes are mostly simple, except for the official wares, and
other decoration is normally limited to the glaze effects.[7] Most often, the
"unofficial" wares are wheel-thrown, but the official ones moulded.
Wine cup, opaque bluish glaze with
The wares are stoneware in terms of Western classification, and "high-fired" or purple-red splashes, late Jin or early
porcelain in Chinese terms (where the class of stoneware is not generally Yuan dynasty, 12th–13th century
recognised). Like the still more prestigious Ru ware, they are often not quite
fired as high as the normal stoneware temperature range, and the body
remains permeable to water.[8] They form a "close relative" of the wider group of Northern celadons or greenwares.[9]

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Contents
History
Characteristics
General Jun ware
"Official" Jun ware
Technical aspects of the glaze and firing
Imitations and collecting
Notes
References
External links

History
The start date for Jun ware is uncertain; many pieces are dated to the Song
Yuan period Jun bowl
dynasty mainly through the similarity of their shapes to those of other Song
wares. No Jun ware has yet been recovered from tombs that can be firmly dated to
the Song.[10] The two main sites with kilns producing Jun ware are close to
Yuzhou, Henan and in Linru County in Henan though, at least by the Yuan, there
were many others, explaining the many differences between examples.[11] As with
other wares, excavations at kiln sites in recent decades have shown that other type
of pottery were also made at the same sites. One Jun ware site was Qingliangsi,
where imperial Ru ware was also made.[12]

The Chinese character for Jun became incorporated in local place names only as
late as 1368. There is no mention of the kilns of Jun ware in written sources from Top view
the Song to Yuan dynasties.[13] The first mention of the wares is by the painter
Song Xu, writing in 1504, in his 《宋氏家規部》 Song shi jia guibu ("Song family
customs").[14] A black ware with spots was produced at the Xiaobai Valley in the
Tang dynasty and can be considered the precursor of Jun ware.[15]

It is possible that early pieces in a very light blue are actually the quasi-mythical
Chai ware of the 10th century, much praised in early sources, but of which no Side view

clear examples matching the early descriptions survive.[16]

The purple colour perhaps does not appear until the early 12th century, and then is only controlled by late in that century.
By the late 13th century at least one piece has a character formed in splashes. This is a headrest in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art with the character for "pillow".[17]

The ware experiences a fall in quality into the Jin period, continuing in the Yuan. By the Yuan dynasty, Jun ware
production had spread to other kiln sites in Henan, Hebei and Shanxi provinces,[18] although Yuzhou City was the prime
area for Jun ware production. Some fine quality pieces are known, often a good deal larger than previously.[19]
Investigations of Jun ware kiln sites began in 1951 under Chen Wanli of the Palace Museum. A hundred kiln sites were
subsequently discovered. A major report appeared in the journal Wenwu ("Historical Relics") in 1964.[20] It was
excavations at Juntai in 1973–1974 which revealed the site where official Jun was made;[21] it is assumed this was all made
there.

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Characteristics
The Jun glaze included blue-grey, sky-blue, moon-white, red and purple, the most prized have crimson or purple splashes.
Varying the temperature of the kilns changed colour tints, a technique known as yaobian.[22]

General Jun ware

A variety of simple shapes are made, the range mostly similar to that of the very differently decorated Cizhou ware. Like
Cizhou wares, the walls are thick and sturdy. Most are natural wheel-formed bowls and dishes, and small vases or wine-
carafes, mostly with a narrow neck, but some meipings. There are also boxes, jars, ewers and other shapes.[23]

The foot of the later period ware is usually unglazed and brown; the rim of bowls can also be brown or greenish where the
glaze is thinner. Song period examples display a careful finishing with glaze inside the foot. Naturally Song shapes are
crisp and thinner than later Jin and Yuan examples. All types are thickly glazed, often with the glaze not reaching the foot
of the piece.[24]

The flower-like ("foliated") rims found in official Jun began in some Song pieces, and echoed contemporary styles in
metalwork and lacquer.[25] By the Yuan some shapes, such as vases and circular incense-burners, are given handles.

Vases

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Vase with purple splashes, late Song Moon-white glazed meiping vase,
or early Yuan dynasty southern Song

Vase with purple splashes, late Jin or Sky-blue glazed square vase, Yuan
early Yuan

Cups

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Yuan 12th century

Song

"Official" Jun ware

Although Jun ware is not mentioned by Song writers on ceramics (or in
surviving chronicles), at least the last class mentioned above, of "streaked"
purple on blue, appears to have been made for the court, and is known as
"official" (guan) Jun ware. The streaked pieces are "all of shapes designed for
the growing or display of flowers", according to Shelagh Vainker,[26] though
other functions are sometimes suggested, giving alternatives such as
spitoon/flower-pots, brush-washer/flower pot stand/bulb planters, and so on.
As an example, the pot illustrated in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore is
described by them as a "spitoon", but an identical shape in the Percival David
Collection is described as a "flower-pot", with an inscribed "6" underneath.[27]
Very similar pots are shown with plants growing in them in a Ming imperial
portrait.[28] The Walters are cautious on dating, while the British Museum date "Official" spittoon or flower-pot; Yuan
their piece to 1403–1435, in the early Ming. or Ming, see text.

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The sizes and shapes differ from the other groups, being generally larger, heavier, and with more complicated shapes,[29]
made in double (two-part) moulds in a process apparently invented by the potters of Jun ware.[30] Many of the rims are
irregular, forming flower-like shapes. There are also incisions on the bases of many pieces, of the characters feng hua, the
name of a building in the main Song palace at Kaifeng (in at least one case this is a Qing addition). Other pieces have
numbers between one and ten impressed on the base. These may indicate standard sizes to help the palace in ordering, the
most likely explanation, or members of matching sets. If the numbers indicate sizes, "1" is the largest and "10" the
smallest".[31] Such pieces are sometimes called "numbered Jun ware". There are also some simple table shapes made to
the same quality, but these are never numbered.[32]

There has been a divergence between Asian and Western scholars in dating these; the Chinese, relying largely on evidence
from excavations at the Juntai kiln, place them in the late Northern Song, while Western writers put them in the Yuan or
early Ming.[33] There has been much discussion of a single supposedly Song period coin found in a kiln at Juntai. There
seem at the least to have been replacement orders for the new imperial palace in Beijing under the early Ming (Yongle and
Xuande Emperors, so 1402–1435), and many pieces are inscribed with locations, probably added in the 18th century, and
certainly remained in place in the palace until the late Qing.[34] Jun flower pots can also be seen in paintings of the court
from the Ming.[35] The British Museum dates the official wares "from about AD 1368 to 1435".[36]

Sherds of these have been excavated at the kiln site at Juntai, Yixian,[37] and recently, opinion has been shifting in favour
of earlier dating within the Ming (as followed above), and some pieces have been re-assigned from being "Jun-type"
imitations in Jingdezhen ware, to Jun itself.[38] The body material of official Jun ware seems rather different from that of
the earlier and more popular pieces.[39]

Flat, wide shapes (functions and dates as per the owning museums)

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Bulb Bowl, about 1200-1300 "Bowl with ruyi-shaped legs" (museum

dates to Song)

Bowl (museum dates to 13th-14th

century)

Technical aspects of the glaze and firing

The glaze of Jun ware is always thick and opaque. It is often very thin or absent around the rim, but thick at the foot,
where it typically leaves a small part uncovered. Both the light blue and purple colours are first seen in Chinese pottery in
Jun wares. The purple areas are caused by the addition of a solution including copper splashed or painted onto the body
between glazing and firing.[40] Some blue or green comes from iron oxide in the glaze, combined with firing in a reducing
atmosphere.[41] At high temperature the glaze produced "spontaneous unmixing ... into silica-rich and lime-rich glasses",
which through phase separation gives an opalescent final appearance:[42] "The tiny spherules of lime-rich glass scatter
blue light, producing a strong bluish cast".[43] The fact that particles or inhomogeneities smaller than a light wavelength
preferentially scatter blue light is known as Rayleigh scattering. [44] The glaze contains large numbers of tiny bubbles,
from gases produced in the glaze during firing. These, though invisible to the naked eye, contribute to the visual effect of
the pieces.[45] In many pieces they leave the glaze rather rough to the touch,[46] though the finest pieces avoid this,
perhaps by grinding the materials very finely.[47] Applying more than one layer of glaze appears to have been common.[48]

Some pieces, especially those of the best quality, seem to have been fired twice, once before glazing, with a second firing at
a higher temperature after glazing.[49] The firing with the glaze on needed to reach about 1200°C, and to cool slowly, so
that the whole firing process probably took some days.[50] Pieces were placed in individual saggars in the kiln.[51] From
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excavations, it appears that both wood and coal (which have different effects
on the reduction atmosphere) might be used, perhaps with wood used for the
best quality pieces.[52]

Imitations and collecting

Jun ware was one of the antique wares that were copied in the south of China
in Jingdezhen ware under the Qing dynasty, mostly in the 18th century.[53] In
the 19th century there were imitations of Jun glazes in Shiwan ware, also in the
south.[54] Modern reproductions, using slipcasting, are still made in the ware's
native Henan, though "the rate of wastage is high" and the results less
successful than other modern Chinese replica wares.[55] Dish with opalescent blue and
lavender splashed glazes, Jin
Although in the Song and Yuan dynasties the wares do not seem to have had a
dynasty, 1115–1234
very high status, from the Ming onwards they acquired a very high reputation
among collectors.[56] A set of panels in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
shows the prestige of Jun ware among Chinese collectors under the Qing. Sherds of purple-splashed Jun ware were
framed and mounted in a set of four custom-made wooden panels of the 18th or 19th century, seen through individually
shaped windows.[57]

Genuine Jun ware continues to be highly collectable and expensive. At an auction at Christie's New York in 2016,[58]
prices realized included USD 52,500 for a small blue bowl,[59] USD 112,500 for a blue plate splashed with purple,[60] and
USD 389,000 for a round official Jun "Number 3" jardinière.[61]

Notes
1. Vainker, 104; Ming, 92–97
2. Vainker, 102–104
3. Medley, 118–122; Vainker, 102–104
4. See note on the spitoon or flower pot illustrated.
5. Medley, 118
6. Vainker, 102
7. Vainker, 102
8. Medley, 118, 122
9. Medley, 118
10. Koh
11. Vainker, 101–102; Medley, 118; Grove
12. Grove
13. Vainker, 102; Sato
14. Flower-pot stand (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3
179981), PDF.97, British Museum
15. Shen
16. Rawson, 245; Gompertz, 79–80 describes the references to Chai ware.
17. Medley, 119; Osborne, 185
18. Grove; Sato
19. Grove

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20. Sato
21. Koh
22. Sato
23. Vainker, 102; Grove
24. Sato
25. Dish, PDF,A.5 (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=318
1519&partId=1&ware=11185&page=1), British Museum
26. Vainker, 102
27. PDF.36, British Museum (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?obj
ectId=3180042&partId=1&ware=11185&page=1)
28. Ming, 97–98
29. Vainker, 102
30. Medley, 118; Ming, 97
31. Vainker, 102–104; Medley, 121
32. Dish, PDF.54 (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3180
024&partId=1&ware=11185&page=1), British Museum
33. Vainker, 104; Ming, 92–97; Osborne, 185; see the final section of Koh for more detail.
34. Ming, 97
35. Ming, 97–98
36. Dish, PDF.54 (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3180
024&partId=1&ware=11185&page=1), British Museum
37. Vainker, 103; the site is: Juntai, Yuxian, Henan province 河南省, 禹縣, 鈞台, per British Museum
38. Compare the "Curator's comments" for this piece (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection
_object_details.aspx?objectId=227717&partId=1&ware=11185&page=1) in the British Museum, citing: Li Baoping,
"Numbered Jun Wares: Controversies and New Kiln Site Discoveries", in Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic
Society, vol. 71, 2006–2007, pp. 65–77
39. Medley, 121–122
40. Vainker, 102, 104
41. Medley, 118–119
42. Vainker, 104–105
43. Grove
44. Zhiyan, Li, et. al. (2010) Chinese Ceramics, From the paleolithic period through the Qing dynasty. Yale University
Press, New Haven & London; Foreign Language Press, Beijing. ISBN 978-0-300-11278-8.
45. Medley, 119
46. Rawson, 245
47. Medley, 119
48. Osborne, 185
49. Medley, 118–119
50. Vainker, 105; Grove, who say firing was "to about 1280–1300°C".
51. Vainker, 104
52. Osborne, 185
53. Grove
54. Shiwan imitation (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3
181046&partId=1), British Museum
55. Grove
56. Vainker, 102
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57. Walters detail for one of their set of 4 (http://art.thewalters.org/detail/29844)

58. Christie's NY, Sale 13915 (http://www.christies.com/salelanding/index.aspx?intsaleid=26759&saletitle=), "The Classic
Age of Chinese Ceramics: The Linyushanren Collection, Part II", 15 September 2016, New York, Rockefeller Plaza
59. Lot 722 (http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot/a-small-jun-bubble-bowl-northern-song-jin-6019232-details.aspx?from=
salesummery&intobjectid=6019232&sid=f564bf0e-04a0-4c8e-90c1-7cccb08ba062)
60. Lot 723 (http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot/a-rare-purple-splashed-jun-dish-northern-song-jin-6019233-details.asp
x?from=salesummery&intobjectid=6019233&sid=537bba16-0cb3-4e3b-877e-d7064004271f)
61. Lot 724 (http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot/a-very-rare-number-three-jun-jardiniere-6019234-details.aspx?from=sal
esummery&intobjectid=6019234&sid=433b7f1b-aa4c-4ff0-ad65-cdbc4470ff27)

References
Gompertz, G.St.G.M., Chinese Celadon Wares, 1980 (2nd edn.), Faber & Faber, ISBN 0571180035
"Grove": Oxford Art Online, "China, §VIII, 3: Ceramics: Historical development", various authors
"Koh", Koh, NK, Koh Antiques, Singapore, "Jun ware (http://www.koh-antique.com/jun/jun.htm)"
Medley, Margaret, The Chinese Potter: A Practical History of Chinese Ceramics, 3rd edition, 1989, Phaidon,
ISBN 071482593X
"Ming": Clunas, Craig and Harrison-Hall, Jessica, Ming: 50 years that changed China, 2014, British Museum Press,
ISBN 9780714124841
Osborne, Harold (ed), The Oxford Companion to the Decorative Arts, 1975, OUP, ISBN 0198661134
Rawson, Jessica (ed). The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, 2007 (2nd edn), British Museum Press,
ISBN 9780714124469
Sato, Masahiko, Chinese Ceramics, Weatherhill, Tokyo, 1981, pp. 117–119
Shen, Roujian, Dictionary of Chinese Fine Arts, Shanghai, pp. 287–288
Vainker, S.J., Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, 1991, British Museum Press, 9780714114705
Valenstein, S. (1998). A handbook of Chinese ceramics (http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/colle
ction/p15324coll10/id/38422/rec/3), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. ISBN 9780870995149

External links
Media related to Jun ware at Wikimedia Commons

A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics (http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/

38422/rec/3) from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Jun ware (http://www.koh-antique.com/jun/jun.htm)
Auctioned examples from recent years (https://collectionist.wordpress.com/jun-bowls/)

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