Lot 130. A persimmon-glazed meiping, Song dynasty (960-1279), 12 ¾ in. (32.5 cm.) high. Estimate GBP 40,000 - GBP 60,000 (USD 51,160 - USD 76,740). Photo Sotheby's.

The elegant tapering vase is modelled with high shoulders and a slender short neck with an everted rim. The vase is covered with a rich brown glaze with a fine iridescent lustre which stops slightly short of the unglazed foot.

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong in the late 1970's, by repute, formerly from a private Japanese collection.
The dating of the current lot is consistent with the results of Oxford Authentication Thermoluminescence test No P114d17.

Note: The persimmon glaze was produced at several northern kilns in the Song dynasty, the two most famous being the Ding and Yaozhou kilns. It was highly admired for the attractive lustrous sheen and rich tone of its glaze. Persimmon-glazed meiping are rare and only a few comparable examples are known. A similar example can be found in the Harvard University Art Museums, illustrated by R. D. Mowry, Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers: Chinese Brown-and Black Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1996, pp. 123-124, no. 24. A similar shorter vase is in the National Museum of Korea, Seoul, and is illustrated by Gakuji Hasebe, Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 12, Tokyo, 1977, pl. 123. 

Two shorter, more globular examples have been sold at Christie's, one which was formerly in the collection of Sir Herbert Ingram (1875- 1958), was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 May 2014, lot. 3323, and the other which was formerly in the Ataka collection and then sold with the The Linyushanren Collection in Christie's New York, 15 September 2016, lot 713.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics And Works of Art, 9 May 2017, London, King Street