Lot 308. A purple-splashed 'Jun' bubble bowl, Song Dynasty (960-1279); diameter 3 1/2 in., 8.8 cm. Estimate 60,000—80,000 USD. Lot Sold 62,500 USD. Photo courtesy Sotheby's 2010

with steeply rounded sides and contracted rim, springing from a neatly finished foot of wedge-shaped section, covered on the exterior with a pale-blue glaze and vividly decorated with several 'fish-like' splashes in lavender-blue, the interior liberally splashed with irregular blushes of magenta and lavender, drained at the rim to a deep buff and pooling short of the foot, later applied with Japanese gold lacquer restoration

Note: It is rare to find a 'jun' bubble bowl with this striking combination of intense and rich splashes on the interior and the unusual arrangement of smaller splashes on the exterior, reminiscent of the bowl from the Collection of Sir David Home, Bt., exhibited at the Oriental Ceramics Society exhibition of Sung Dynasty Wares, Chun and Brown Glazes, London, 1952, Catalogue no. 157 and sold in our Hong Kong rooms 24th November 1987, lot 5. For intensity of coloration, compare the two extraordinary bowls from the Edward T. Chow Collection sold in our London rooms, 16th December 1980, lots 264 and 265, and again in our Hong Kong rooms, the former on 19th May 1987, lot 209, and later in the T.T. Tsui Collection, the latter on 7th June 2000, lot 93