Guan ware

Guan ware
Guan ware celadon bowl with hibiscus-shaped rim, Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279). National Palace Museum
Branch	Chinese ceramics
Years active	Northern Song (early 12th century) – Southern Song dynasty (12th–13th century)
Location	Northern Song: Bianjing (Kaifeng), Henan (kiln site unconfirmed); Southern Song: Hangzhou, Zhejiang (Xiushisi and Jiaotanxia kiln sites)
Influences	Ru ware

Guan ware or Kuan ware (Chinese: 官窯; pinyin: guān yáo; Wade–Giles: kuan-yao) is one of the Five Famous Kilns of Song dynasty China, making high-status stonewares, whose surface decoration relied heavily on crackled glaze, randomly crazed by a network of crack lines in the glaze.

Guan means "official" in Chinese and Guan ware was, most unusually for Chinese ceramics of the period, the result of an imperial initiative resulting from the loss of access to northern kilns such as those making Ru ware and Jun ware after the invasion of the north and the flight of a Song prince to establish the Southern Song at a new capital at Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. It is usually assumed that potters from the northern imperial kilns followed the court south to man the new kilns.

In some Asian sources "Guan ware" may be used in the literally translated sense to cover any "official" wares ordered by the Imperial court. In April 2015, Liu Yiqian paid US$14.7 million for a Guan ware vase from the Southern Song.