A Jizhou ware bowl with papercut decoration, Song Dynasty

A light gray stoneware bowl of the yankou wan-type with a dark brown "tortoiseshell" glaze on the exterior. The glaze stops in a relatively even edge just short of the ledge encircling the foot. On the interior the bowl is decorated with a papercut design of three stylized plum blossoms and two phoenixes in filght reserved in dark brown against a variegated bluish buff ground.