A sancai-glazed ground foliate-rim pottery dish, Liao dynasty. Estimate 10,000 — 12,000 USD. Photo Sotheby's.

of elongated barbed quatrefoil shape, the everted rim molded with a foliate scroll border glazed in green, the shallow sides covered in an amber glaze and the center molded with three frontal lotus blooms each ringed in amber glaze on a green ground, the white slip covering visible on the underside, the base unglazed, Japanese wood box. Length 10 1/4  in., 26 cm

Notes: Based on a silver or gold prototype, the artisans who created these forms in pottery prove innovative in their use of molds and color.  The depth of the impression helped to control the viscous glaze, allowing it to pool in the recesses thus highlighting the design and to contain the colors within the impression.  Additionally the use of three vivid colors served to outline design elements and heighten the visual  appeal.

Two similar examples, one with a green ground and one with a white ground, were excavated in Xiaoliuzhangzi, Nincheng county, Inner Mongolia and datable to the 11th century, were exhibited and illustrated in Gilded Splendor, Treasures of China's Liao Empire, Asia Society and Museum, New York, 2006, pp. 358-359, cat. nos. 116a-b. Other examples of this shape and floral design are illustrated in Toji Taikei, vol. 40, Tokyo, 1974, no 67, col. pl. 21. For a silver plate example of the same form excavated from a hoard in Balin Right Banner see Wenwu, 1980.5, p. 48, fig. 10.

Sotheby's. Chinese Art through the Eye of Sakamoto Gor – Ceramics, New York, 17 mars 2015, 10:00 AM