Lot 3202. A Junyao purple-splashed 'lotus bud' waterpot, Northern Song–Jin dynasty, 9.3 cm, 3 5/8  in. Estimate 300,000 — 500,000 HKD. Lot Sold 375,000 HKD (45,379 EUR) (48,259 USD). Photo: Sotheby's.

with deep rounded sides supported on a neatly cut footring and tapering to the mouth, the exterior and base unctuously applied with an opaque blue glaze thinning to a mushroom tone at the rim, the exterior further accentuated with liberal splashes of purple, the glaze falling short above the foot revealing a greyish body burnt to orange in the firing

Provenance: Galaxie Company, Hong Kong, 30th September 1993.

Note: A Junyao lotus bud waterpot of this shape and size, from the British Rail Pension Fund and exhibited on loan at the Dallas Museum of Art between 1985-88, was sold in our London rooms, 12th December 1989, lot 85.

Similar waterpots are illustrated in Chugoku toji zenshu [Complete book of Chinese ceramics], vol. 12, Kyoto, 1983, pl. 30, from the Shanghai Museum Collection; in Andre Leth, Catalogue of Selected Objects of Chinese Art in the Museum of Decorative Art Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 1959, pl. 86; in Henry Trubner, Royal Ontario Museum. The Far Eastern Collection, Toronto, 1968, pl. 74; in Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, pl. 79, from the Metropolitan Museum Collection, New York, together with a lid. A similar Junyao waterpot was sold in our London rooms, 12th June 2003, lot 114.

Sotheby's. Song Ceramics from a Distinguished Private Collector, Hong Kong, 05 Apr 2017, 11:00 AM