A burnished black 'egg-shell' pottery stem cup, Neolithic period, Longshan culture, 2nd half 3rd millenium BC (2500-2000 BC), Shandong Province.  © Christie's Image 2003

Thinly potted, the deep cup with widely flared rim raised on a tall hollow stem with broader tubular section cut with rows of narrow slits either side of a median grooved band, raised on a spreading foot - 9½in. (24.1cm.) high, box - Lot 187. Estimate $4,000 - $6,000. Price Realized $4,183 

Property ofrom the collection of Mr. and Mrs. James E. Breece III

The genesis of the Mr. and Mrs. James E. Breece III Collection of Chinese Ceramics began with a chance meeting in 1978 with the then head of Christie's New York Asian Art Department. The friendship that ensued led to an interest in Chinese Art and shortly thereafter at the age of 26, Mr. Breece began his collection with the purchase at Christie's of a Kangxi blue and white bottle vase that is still in the collection (lot 301). What began as a passing interest became a passion and today the collection encompasses not only representative pieces spanning the history of Chinese ceramics gathered with connoisseurship that was refined over the years, but also a fine selection of Southeast Asian ceramics (lots 265-281), the first such group to be offered at auction in decades.

Notes: Thin, lustrous black pottery was made by the Neolithic cultures of Dawenkou and Longshan in the area of present day Shandong province in northeastern China. A similar black pottery cup was excavated at a Dawenkou culture site in Juxian, Shandong province, and was published in Kaogu xuebao, 1991, no. 2, pl. VIII:2. Compare, also, the cup with similar bowl and stem illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, rev. ed., 1982, vol. 10, fig. 54, p. 163, as well as two related stem cups of this type illustrated by R. Krahl, Dawn of the Yellow Earth: Ancient Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, China Institute, New York, 2000, nos. 26 and 27. 

CHRISTIE'S. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 18 September 2003, New York, Rockefeller Plaza