Lot 2831. A very rare Cizhou white-glazed lobed vase, Northern Song dynasty, 11th-12th century.  Estimate HK$200,000 - HK$300,000 ($25,927 - $38,891). Price Realized HK$187,500 ($24,307). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The vase is well potted with lobed bulbous body rising to a trumpet neck and a flaring flower-shaped mouth, supported on a scalloped foot. The exterior is covered with a white slip under a clear glaze that continues inside the neck. 7 5/8 in. (19.5 cm.) high, Japanese wood box

Provenance: Frank Caro, New York, February 1966 
Pauline and Johnny Falk Collection, no. 133, sold at Christie’s New York, The Falk Collection I: Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, catalogue date 20 September 2001, lot 58
Sen Shu Tey, Tokyo

Literature: Sen Shu Tey, The Collection of Chinese Art, Tokyo, 2006, p. 68, no. 86

Exhibited: Sen Shu Tey, Special Exhibition ‘Run Through 10 Years’, Tokyo, 2006, Catalogue, no. 86

Notes: This attractive lobed-form is more usually seen in qingbai-glazed porcelains, and it is rare to find a well-potted stoneware example. Compare the present lot to a very similar Cizhou vase, illustrated in The Matsuoka Museum of Art,Selected Masterpieces of Oriental Ceramics, Tokyo, 1984, no. 24. The present vase has slightly more pronounced lobes on the body and does not have the addition of pairs of double lines encircling the trumpet neck. Another Cizhou example with somewhat elongated neck and more rounded body is in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by He Li Chinese Ceramics: A New Comprehensive Survey, New York, 1996, no. 222. Compare also a related Cizhou vase of more slender proportion in the Umezawa Gallery, illustrated in Mayuyama Seventy Years, Tokyo, 1976, vol. 1, p.189, no. 561.

Christie's. THE CLASSIC AGE OF CHINESE CERAMICS - THE LINYUSHANREN COLLECTION, PART I, 2 December 2015, Convention Hall.