Lot 3121. A carved Yaozhou bowl, Northern Song dynasty, 11th-12th century. Estimate HK$100,000 – HK$150,000 ($12,934 - $19,401). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

The interior is carved to the centre with a leafy stem bearing a single six-petalled blossom surrounded by combed waves, covered overall in an olive-green glaze with the exception of the foot and base dressed in brown. 5 3/8 in. (13.6 cm.) diam., Japanese wood box 

Provenance: John Sparks, Ltd., London
Mayuyama, Tokyo, 24 July 2012

Notes: The design of this bowl is known as luohua liushui (fallen flower and floating stream) as described in the Southern Tang Emperor Li Yu's poem. A Yaozhou bowl with this well-known design in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 120, no. 106. Other Yaozhou bowls carved with this design are in The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, illustrated in The Masterpieces of Yaozhou Ware, Osaka, 1997, p. 53, no. 67, and in the Percival David Foundation, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics: The World's Great Collections, vol. 7, Tokyo, 1976, col. pl. 18. Compare also a pair of Yaozhou bowls with the same motif from the Linyushanren Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics: The Linyushanren Colelction, Part I, 2 December 2015, lot 2801.

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