Southern Song Dynasty Jian ware Tenmoku Small Tea Bowl with Oil-Spot

This is an oil-spot tenmoku tea bowl made at Jian ware during the Southern Song dynasty.
It is slightly smaller than the commonly seen tenmoku tea bowls, with a wide-open mouth in an inverted V shape.
The bottom is carefully carved to be smaller and lower than the base of the vessel, and the inside of the bottom is also cut shallowly.
At Jian ware, black, sticky clay is used and a generous amount of black glaze containing a lot of iron is applied in one coat, with the lower part of the vessel left exposed when fired.
Due to the kiln change phenomenon in which the composition of the glaze changes during firing, small granular spots appear to shine on the black surface and drip slightly.
The pattern is a cross between linear fur and granular oil droplets, and the outer surface and inner rim are brown, becoming a darker black as you go towards the inner bottom.
Although this is not the mainstream shape for tenmoku tea bowls, this shape was also made at Jian kiln and it is a rare example.

There are scratches on the inside glaze surface. There are two places, on the inside bottom and rim, that have been repaired with lacquer. It has a well-used, nice feel.
There are some aged deterioration on the whole surface, but there is luster.The chip on the rim was caused during firing.