Lot 175. A 'Yaozhou' persimmon-glazed bowl, Northern Song dynasty (960-1279). Diameter 4 1/2  in., 11.4 cm. Estimate 10,000 — 15,000 USD. Lot sold 12,500 USD. Photo Sotheby's

the gently rounded sides rising from a straight foot to an everted hexafoil rim, covered overall in a lustrous persimmon-colored glaze, the base left unglazed revealing a smooth pale brown stoneware body. 

Provenance: Private American collection, prior to 1979. 

Note: Best known for their celadon-glazed stonewares, the Yaozhou kilns also made fine stonewares with persimmon glazes, probably inspired by contemporaneous russet-glazed Ding wares. A very similar bowl excavated from the Yaozhou kiln site at Huangbao, Shaanxi province, and now in the Yaozhou Kiln Museum, is published in Zhongguo taoci quanji [Complete Series on Chinese Ceramics], Shanghai, vol. 7, 1999-2000, pl. 116; and another closely related bowl is included in the exhibition The Masterpieces of Yaozhou Ware, The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1997, no. 48.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Works of Art, New York, 17 march 2015, 02:00 PM