A Jun ware teabowl, fired during the Jin dynasty. The bowl is of modest size with a gently incurving wall, and is carefully covered with a bluish opalescent (diàn qīng) glaze extending almost to the edge of the footring. The glaze is finely melted, possessing a soft, lustrous surface, while around the rim it thins to reveal a warm loquat-brown tone beneath. This brown-edged rim is a characteristic feature of Jun wares produced at private kilns during the Jin dynasty.

The term Jun ware refers to a group of kilns centred on Junzhou (present-day Yuzhou, Henan Province), renowned for their opaque blue glazes and active from the late Northern Song through the Ming dynasty. Once regarded primarily as an official ware of the Northern Song, recent scholarship increasingly places the true flourishing of Jun-glazed ceramics in the middle to late Jin dynasty. From the closing years of the Jin into the Yuan period, Jun glaze technology spread far beyond Henan across northern China, giving rise to a vast tradition of coloured-glaze production. As this expansion progressed, however, vessels became larger and increasingly standardised, while the glazes themselves grew coarser in character. With its finely controlled glaze and compact, carefully proportioned form, the present bowl preserves the refined qualities of Jin-period Jun ware before this transformation took place.

The bowl shows evidence of long use, with tea staining visible in the well. Otherwise, there are no notable defects, and the condition is excellent. Accompanied by a fitted wooden storage box.