A very rare carved white-glazed jar and cover. Yuan dynasty, 14th century Image 2009 Christie's Ltd

The globular body tapering to the foot, finely carved on the broad rounded sides with a wide lotus scroll, the large flowers borne alternately upright and pendent on an undulating double-lined stem growing leaves, all set against a combed ground, above a band of lappets enclosing pendent trefoils, a classic scroll around the shoulder, the domed cover carved with further lappets radiating from the bud-shaped finial, applied overall with a clear bluish tinged transparent qingbai glaze leaving the unglazed foot ring encircling the slightly countersunk base, 15 3/4 in. (40 cm.) overall height with lid - Price Realized HK$500,000 ($64,824)

元 青白釉纏枝蓮紋蓋罐

Notes: No other jars carved with scrolling lotus on the wide body appear to have been published, although examples carved with dragon motifs are known such as the excavated jar now in the Shangdong Provincial Museum, illustrated by Ye Peilan, Yuandai Ciqi, Beijing, 1998, p. 219, pl. 68; and another from a 14th century shipwreck, included in the Exhibition of Cultural Relics Found off Sinan Coast, National Museum of Korea, 1977, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 164. A comparable example carved with detached sprays of lotus and peony above pendent lappets was sold at Sotheby's London, 10 December 1985, lot 121.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. 1 December 2009. Hong Kong www.christies.com