Conical Bowl with Blossoming Plum

This bowl’s striking, variegated blue hue was created accidentally during firing, when the iron-rich glaze chemically reacted with a mixture of wood or bamboo ash that was applied to its surface. The original dark brown hue is preserved in the more thinly coated rim and in the hauntingly delicate pattern of blossoming plum that was applied in resist by a stencil of cut paper. As the first flower to bloom in late winter, the plum blossom was associated with beauty, renewal, and fortitude, and became an auspicious motif in Chinese painting and decorative arts during the Song dynasty.