Lot 24. Property from the Cunliffe Collection. A rare blue and sancai-glazed pottery jar, Tang Dynasty; 18.3cm (8 1/8in) high. Sold for £45,000 (€57,137). © Bonhams 2001-2016.
Of globular form, supported on a short spreading foot and surmounted by a short waisted neck and rolled lip, boldly decorated around the exterior with wide olive-green bands centred by rows of resist dots bordered in amber and blue and separated by narrow vertical rows of resist-glazed small white dots, the glaze topping above the foot in an undulating line to reveal the pinkish-buff body, the neck and rim amber-glazed.
Provenance: Rolf, Lord Cunliffe (1899-1963), Honorary Keeper of the Far Eastern Collections at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
The Cunliffe Collection, no.PT23, and thence by descent
Exhibited and Published: Oriental Ceramic Society, Wares of the T'ang Dynasty, London, 27 April - 8 June, no.26
Oriental Ceramic Society, The Arts of the T'ang Dynasty, London, 25 February - 30 March 1955, no.98
The dating of this lot is consistent with Oxford Authentication Ltd thermoluminescence report no.C116d23, dated 23 March 2016.
Note: Compare with a very similar Tang dynasty sancai-glazed jar illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelain of the Jin and Tang Dynasties, Hong Kong, 1996, pp.222-223, pl.205. Another is illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl.31.
Bonhams. AUCTION 23237: FINE CHINESE ART, 10:30 BST - LONDON, NEW BOND STREET
