A rare 'Qingbai' carved ewer, Yuan dynasty. Estimate 20,000 — 30,000 USD. Photo Sotheby's.

the compressed globular body rising from a flat base to a short neck with lipped rim, set with a flat grooved handle and a loop on top, the curved spout applied with a stylized phoenix head, the body decorated with two bands of stylized ruyi cloud scrolls, covered overall with a light blue glaze pooling in the recesses, stopping neatly above the foot to reveal the pale white body. Height 3 3/8  in., 8.5 cm

Notes: It is rare to find a qingbai ewer of this form and decoration, and no other examples appear to have been published. Compare a related ewer with this molded ruyi cloud decoration published in Jingdezhen Wares: The Yuan Evolution, Hong Kong, 1984, no. 48, where Margaret Medley notes in her introductory essay (p. 25) that during the early Yuan years, compartmented decoration and rigid restriction to bands, such as the one seen on this present piece, became an increasingly popular stylistic feature.  

See another ewer of related form also applied with a stylized phoenix head on the spout, excavated from the Jinyucun hoard in Suining City in 1991, published in Suining Jinyu Cun Nan Song jiao cang / Jinyucun Hoard of Southern Song Dynasty in Suining, Beijing, vol. 2, 2012, pl. 119; and another, attributed to the Southern Song dynasty, excavated in 1976 at Changyi, Xinjian county and now in the Jiangxi Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo chutu ciqi quanji / Complete Collection of Ceramic Art Unearthed in China, Beijing, 2008, vol. 14, pl. 78.

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