Lot 52. A 'Changsha' painted ewer, Tang dynasty (618-907). Height 9 1/2  in., 24.2 cm. Estimate 10,000 — 15,000 USD. Lot sold 12,500 HKD. Photo Sotheby's.

the ovoid body rising from a short spreading foot to a tall cylindrical neck with everted rim, divided into four lobes, set to one side with a short polygonal spout and to the other with a double-stranded loop handle, freely painted with a deer among grasses and plants in underglaze copper-green and iron-brown, covered overall with a yellowish-green glaze stopping short of the foot to reveal the buff body. 

Exhibited: Zhongguo mingtao riben xunhui zhan [Exhibition of Famous Chinese Ceramics Touring Japan], Nihonbashi Takashimaya, Tokyo, 1992, pp. 26-27.

Literature: Chugoku meito ten: Chugoku toji 2000-nen no seika [Exhibition of Chinese Pottery: Two Thousand Years of Chinese Ceramics], Tokyo, 1992, no. 14.

Note: A green-glazed Changsha ewer also painted with a deer was unearthed in Luoyang City and now in the Luoyang Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo chutu ciqi quanji / Complete Collection of Ceramic Art Unearthed in China, Beijing, 2008, vol. 12, pl. 57.  A related ewer painted with birds and flowers instead of deer is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelain of the Jin and Tang Dynasties, Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 138, from the Qing Court collection. 

Sotheby's. Song Tradition: Early Ceramics from the Yang De Tang Collection. New York, 17 mars 2015, 11:00 AM