Dish with Everted Rim

This simple but extraordinary dish is one of the great mysteries of Chinese pottery known as imperial Ru ware. The intrigue surrounding the ware begins with its extreme rarity; this dish is one of a very small number of Ru in the West. The mystique of Ru is further enhanced by its remarkably subtle celadon glaze, a unique color that is soft blue-green with a underlying blush of rosy pink. The finely crackled glaze appears as if slivers and flakes of ice were frozen in the celadon. This tantalizing play of color is appealing, especially when the glaze covers such a refined and elegant shape. The secrets of the Ru kiln were lost for eight hundred years until the site was discovered and excavated late in the twentieth century.