Lot 113. A rare 'Cizhou' sgraffiato 'peony' vase, Northern Song dynasty (960–1127): 20 cm, 7 7/8  in. Estimate 40,000 — 60,000 GBP. Lot sold 50,000 GBP. Photo: Sotheby's

the baluster body rising from a short spreading foot to a tall trumpet neck with rolled rim, freely carved through the layer of brown slip to the ivory white layer beneath with two large peony blooms borne on a meandering leafy scroll, all above a lappet band at the base and covered overall with a transparent glaze, Japanese wood box. Quantité: 2.

Note: Some of the most attractive Cizhou ware produced at the Cizhou kilns in Guantai, Ci county, are arguably those decorated in this impressive and vividly contrasting black-and-white sgraffiato style, which was created through the application of two layers of slip. A layer of white slip was applied over a layer of black slip, which was later carefully incised and cut away to reveal the pristine white layer beneath and then covered by a layer of clear glaze.

A vase of this form and decoration was excavated at Guantai and illustrated in The Cizhou Kiln Site at Guantai, Beijing, 1997, col. pl. 9, no. 2. Compare also a closely related vase, from the collection of Hirota Matsushige, now in the Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, included in Illustrated Catalogue of Tokyo National Museum. Chinese Ceramics I, Tokyo, 1988, pl. 560;  another in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, published in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl. 115; a third in the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo, included in the Museum’s exhibition Famous Pieces of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, Tokyo, 1983, cat. no. 23, and sold in these rooms, 25th March 1975, lot 14; and a further vase in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, published in John Ayers, Far Eastern in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, pl. 113.

Cizhou-type vase, stoneware with sgraffito decoration of peony design, China, Song dynasty, 11th-12th century. Height: 20.3 cm. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2017

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, London, 09 nov. 2016, 11:30 AM