Tea Bowl

Tea Bowl  - Tortoise-shell Tenmoku ware Southern Song dynasty, China.

This is a tenmoku type tea bowl produced at the Jizhou kiln in Jiangxi Province, China.  The name comes from the fact that yellowish brown spots, resembling a tortoise shell, appear on yellowish brown spots, resembling a tortoise shell, appear on the dark brown iron glaze.  Characteristics of this type of tea bowl are that while the outside is covered with brown spots, the inside has a flower, phoenix, leaf or Chinese character design.  This tea bowl has the tortoise-shell sports on the outside and stenciled floral lozenges on the inside.