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Among the most celebrated wares from the Southern Song period, the leaf-decorated tea bowls produced at the Jizhou kilns in Yonghezhen, Ji’an County, Jiangxi Province—historically known as Jizhou—occupy a singular place in the history of Chinese ceramics. While the region lacked access to the finest raw materials for stoneware production, the potters of Jizhou distinguished themselves through remarkable creativity and technical experimentation, particularly in the realm of surface decoration.

The most iconic and enduring of these innovations is the so-called muye wenyang wan or shuye tuyang wan (“tree-leaf-pattern bowls”), which feature naturalistic leaf impressions on their interior surfaces. This striking effect was achieved through an ingenious process: a real leaf was carefully applied to the interior of a stoneware bowl before the vessel was dipped in a lustrous dark brown glaze. During firing, the organic material burned away, and chemical interactions between the leaf’s natural composition and the glaze left a delicate, often golden-amber or pale yellow silhouette of the original leaf form.

These bowls—simultaneously rustic and refined—represent not only the aesthetic ideals of Song dynasty tea culture but also a rare instance in which nature itself became an integral part of ceramic decoration. Their quiet elegance and technical sophistication have ensured their lasting place among the most admired ceramics made for tea use in pre-modern China.

Compare with an example from Christie's Hong Kong, November 30, 2020, lot 3026, price realised 500,000 HKD
请参考香港佳士得2020年11月30日，拍品编号3026，售价500,000港币
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6297498