Lot 214. A 'Cizhou' Russet-Splashed Black-Glazed Bowl, Northern Song-Jin Dynasty (960-1234); Diameter 6 1/2  in.,  16.5 cm. Estimate 40,000 — 60,000 USD. Lot sold 68,750 USD. Photo Sotheby's

the conical form rising from a short straight foot, the interior covered with a glossy black-brown glaze, thinning to a caramel-brown at the rim and liberally applied with russet 'partridge feather' streaks, the exterior with a russet glaze stopping neatly above the unglazed foot ring to reveal the buff gray body, Japanese wood box (3).

Property from the collection of David and Nayda Utterberg

Provenance: Purchased in Tokyo, 1987. 

Note: The present bowl belongs to a group of Northern blackwares of Cizhou type with distinctive russet-brown streaks to the glaze, reminiscent of the markings on partridge feathers. Compare two bowls of similar glaze and form included in the exhibition Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers. Chinese Brown- and Black-Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 1996, cat. nos 37a & b, where the author notes that shards of related bowls with partridge feather glazes have been excavated from the second stratum of the Cizhou-type Guantai kilns in Hebei province, see ibid, p. 142. See also a similar bowl illustrated in Michael Sullivan, Chinese Ceramics, Bronzes and Jades in the Collection of Sir Alan and Lady Barlow, London, 1963, pl. 53c and another in the collection of the Hakutsuru Fine Art Museum, Hyogo, included in the exhibition Charm of Black & White Ware: Transition of Cizhou Type Wares, Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, Osaka, 2002, cat. no. 149. 

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 16 Mar 2016, 10:00 AM