Lot 31. A fine and rare lavender blue glazed 'jun' tripod censer, Northern Song-Jin Dynasty, 12th-13th century. Estimate 90,000 — 120,000 USD. Lot sold 108,000USD. © Sotheby's.

Note: This ding  tripod censer is a classic Jun type but examples of this size, finely detailed form and well-controlled glaze are very rarely seen, and its highly noteworthy features point to a Northern Song dynasty date. The proportions of the lower bulb of the body are flattened to form a particularly well-shaped flat base, in contrast to a slightly later development in the Jin dynasty, in which a countersunk circular ring is carved into the center of a more rounded base. Indeed, in its particularly successful translucency and 'frosted' craquelure of the glaze, and the paler tint of the exposed body material, the present censer is important in its close correlation to the prized Ru ware. While Jun wares were more typically produced in the Dayu kilns of Linru county, Jun shards were also excavated from the Qingliansi kilns of neighboring Baofeng county, Henan province, which specialised in the production of the famed Ru wares; see Wang Qingzheng, The Discovery of Ru Kiln, Hong Kong, 1991, pls.2, 3 & 5. Compare the glaze behavior displayed on the bottom of the present Jun censer (see detail) with that of the famed Ru cupstand in the Percival David Foundation, illustrated ibid, pl.60, or the series of dishes exhibited at the Tobu Museum of Art, Song Ceramics, Tokyo, 1999, cat.nos.19-22, and in particular no.21.