Lot 3. A sancai and blue-glazed pottery tripod jar, Tang dynasty. Estimate 15,000 — 20,000 USD.  Lot Sold 35,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's

the compressed globular body raised on three short paw supports and encircled by a lower flat bow-string band and a more pronounced rib at the shoulder, all below a short waisted neck and flared rim, carefully applied with blue, green, amber and clear glazes to form a design of seven pendent leaves at the shoulder and three registers of spots around the body all reserved on an amber-glazed ground which continues onto the lower body, legs, waisted neck and rim, the lower body unglazed revealing white slip and off-white body, two Japanese wood boxes (5) - Width 7 1/2  in., 19.2 cm

Exhibited: Kaikan Tokubetsu Shuppin Seihin Senshu [Special Opening Exhibition - Anthology of Selected Masterpieces], Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka, 2005, cat. no. 38.

Notes: The present jar is striking for its use of vibrant blue glaze together with the traditional sancai colors. Compare jars of this form applied with blue and sancai glazes, such as one formerly in the Arthur Sackler collection, illustrated in Warren E. Cox, The Book of Pottery and Porcelain, vol.1,  New York 1944, pl. 256 and subsequently sold at Christie's New York, 1st December 1994, lot 152; another from the T.Y. Chao collection sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 19th May 1987, lot 203; and a third sold at Christie's New York, 22nd March 2007, lot 255. See also another of this type illustrated in Three-Colour Glazed Pottery Kilns of the Tang Dynasty at Huangye, Beijing, 2000, col. pl. 50, fig. 4.

Other tripod jars of this form, without the addition of the blue glaze, include one exhibited in The Hans Popper Collection of Oriental Art, New York, 1973, cat. no. 62; another illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 270; and a third sold in our London rooms, 11th December 1984, lot 144. 

Sotheby's. Chinese Art Through the Eye of Sakamoto Gor: Early Chinese Art, New York, 13 Sep 2016, 10:00 AM