Lot 3104. A rare sancai-glazed 'floral medallion' jar, Tang dynasty (618-907). Estimate HK$1,800,000 – HK$2,600,000 ($232,807 - $336,276). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

The ovoid jar is applied to the sides with three large, crisply moulded flowerhead medallions overlapping a double grooved band on the high shoulder. It is covered with a green, amber and cream-splashed glaze beginning below the amber-glazed neck and everted rim and falling irregularly on the lower body to expose the pale buff body. 11 3/4 in. (30 cm.) high

Provenance: A Japanese private collector, acquired in Hong Kong in 1998.
Sold at Christie's New York, 26 March 2003, lot 197

Notes: A number of sancai-glazed ovoid jars with similarly moulded flowerhead medallions are found in a number of important collections. Compare the jar in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, which is registered as an Important Art Object, illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, Vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, no. 226 (fig. 1); and another jar in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, illustrated by J. Mayuyama (ed.), Chinese Ceramics in the West, Tokyo, 1960, p. 5, no. 5. Another comparable jar of similar size but with the moulded medallions reserved on a green-glazed background, is illustrated by Masahiko Sato and Gakuji Hasebe, Sekai toji zenshu, Vol. 11, Tokyo, 1976, p. 48, no. 33.

fig. 1 Sancai-glazed ovoid jars, registered as an Important Art Object in Japan, collection of the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, illustrated in Mayuyama Seventy Years, Tokyo, 1976.

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 666x55 (April 1994), is consistent with the dating of this lot.

Christie's. CLASSICAL CHINESE ART FROM THE SUI TO THE SONG DYNASTIES, 1 June 2016, Convention Hall