Pair of Teabowls with Bamboo

These eggshell-thin bowls represent an exquisite example of the technique known as doucai (dovetailing or contending colors), in which underglaze-blue outlines are partly filled with overglaze enamel colors. Outlines of bamboo were painted in cobalt and covered with a transparent glaze before firing. The leaves were then colored with pale green, yellow, and red enamels, and the bowls refired at a lower temperature. Bamboo, which remains green throughout the year and whose hollow stems bend without breaking, has traditionally been viewed in China as a poignant image of human resilience. The elegant depiction of nature on these teabowls was undoubtedly inspired by China’s long tradition of bamboo paintings on silk and paper.