A BURNISHED BLACK POTTERY ALMS BOWL, PATRA Tang dynastyA BURNISHED BLACK POTTERY ALMS BOWL, PATRATang dynastyThe spherical bowl thinly potted with inverted rim, covered inside and out in a thin layer of black burnished coating with 'wheel's marks' still visible, areas of chipped coating revealed the burnt-orange pottery body. 9 1/2in (24.1cm) diam唐 加碳黑陶缽Published:Chinese Ceramics in Black and White, J.J. Lally & Co., New York, 2010, no. 7Exhibited:Chinese Ceramics in Black and White, J.J. Lally & Co., New York, March 20-April 10, 2010, no. 7出版：《中國黑瓷與白瓷》，紐約藍理捷中國文物，2010 年，圖版編號 7 展覽：《中國黑瓷與白瓷》，紐約藍理捷中國文物，2010 年 3 月 20 日至 4 月 10 日，展覽編號 7The black surface of this bowl may be the result of a reducing atmosphere induced during the firing to darken the clay, followed by the application of a coating of carbon and gypsum which was polished to a high gloss.Compare the black pottery bowl at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated by An Jiayao in "Tang dai heitao taobo kao" (Study of the Tang Black Pottery Alms Bowls), Han Tang yu bianjiang kaogu yanjiu (Archaeological Study of the Han, Tang and Frontier Cultures), Vol. 1, Beijing, 1994, p. 259, pl. 2. The black pottery bowls mentioned by the author are described as "mo guang" and "shen tan," which may be translated as "polished" and "carbonized." The author also provides several other references to excavations at Tang dynasty Buddhist temple sites published in Kaogu and Kaogu Xuebao where similar black pottery alms bowls have been discovered.Compare also the black pottery bowl of very closely related form, described as having a lacquered surface, excavated in 1984 from the tomb of the monk Shenhui, discovered in the base of a Tang dynasty Buddhist pagoda in Longmen, Luoyang, Henan province, illustrated in Luoyang chutu wenwu jicui (Ancient Treasures of Luoyang), Beijing, 1990, no. 95, p. 105. The same bowl is again illustrated in Gudu Luoyang (Luoyang, the Ancient City), Beijing, 1999, p. 169, citing an epitaph mentioning monk Shenhui (the fifth Tang Buddhist patriarch) was buried in the first year of Yongtai (A.D. 765).