Song celadon bowl — Song celadon bowl
Song celadon bowl Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Bowl · Song

Song celadon bowl

960–1279 CE, Imperial China

The Song celadon bowl is the stoneware bowl with a thick blue-green or olive glaze made at Longquan and Yaozhou from 960 to 1279 CE, carved or moulded under the glaze with lotus and floral designs. Longquan wares were exported across Asia and Yaozhou served the northern court. Celadon is the classic Song ware.

ObjectBowl
Dates960–1279 CE
PeriodSong
CulturesImperial China
RegionsEast Asia

Diagnostic traits

Stoneware bowl with a thick blue-green or olive glaze, carved or moulded under the glaze; Longquan and Yaozhou are the principal kilns.

Identification

The thick, unctuous green glaze over a grey stoneware body that fires reddish where exposed distinguishes it from Yue wares, which are earlier and olive, and from later Ming celadon, which is thinner; Yaozhou is olive-green with crisp carving and Longquan bluish-green with bulging lotus petals. Foot rims are unglazed. Crackle occurs on some.

Reproductions and fakes

Copied at Longquan and Jingdezhen today, and Yuan and Ming pieces are sold as Song; genuine Song glaze shows depth and fine bubbles and the body shows wear on the foot. Thermoluminescence is of limited use on high-fired wares.

Cite this article

Stratum Strata. "Song celadon bowl" (Artifact type). Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/strata/types/song-celadon-bowl. Accessed 2026-09-21.

@misc{stratum-song-celadon-bowl,
  title        = {Song celadon bowl},
  author       = {{Stratum Strata}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/strata/types/song-celadon-bowl}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Artifact type article, Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum, commons. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
}

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