Bonhams. FINE ASIAN WORKS OF ART, 18 Dec 2017, 11:00 PST, SAN FRANCISCO
A group of three brown glazed bowls with impressed decoration, Trần-Lê dynasty, 14th-15th century
Lot 865. A group of three brown glazed bowls with impressed decoration, Trần-Lê dynasty, 14th-15th century; 6 1/2in and 6 3/8in (16.5 and 16cm) diameter. Estimate US$ 1,000 - 1,500 (€840 - 1,300). Sold for US$ 562 (€474). Photo: Bonhams.
Each with a delicately foliated rim and impressed decoration across the well: the first bowl showing alternating cloud and floral panels around a cloud roundel and the second bowl impressed with a lotus pod medallion surrounded by flowering plants, five spur marks appearing in the dark brown glaze across both wells; the third bowl impressed with alternating peony and prunus flowers and the abbreviated Chinese characters guan yao at the center surrounded by an unglazed firing ring within the pale brown glaze layer; the glaze on all three bowls continuing onto the exterior walls, stopping unevenly above each foot ring and recessed base.
Published: The first two bowls are illustrated in James H. Brow and Anh Hoang Brow, 'Vietnamese Ceramics: A Ten Thousand Year Continuum,' Arts of Asia, March-April 2004, p. 84, no. 9.
Note: For bowls with similar impressed decoration to the first and second bowls in this, see John Stevenson and John Guy, Vietnamese Ceramics: A Separate Tradition, 1997, p. 278, nos. 193 and 195; for the guan yao mark impressed on the third bowl, see p. 279, no. 197.