Lot 182. A rare large blue and sancai-glazed pottery basin, Tang Dynasty (618-907). Diameter 10 in., 25.4 cm. Estimate 15,000 — 20,000 USD. Lot sold 27,500 USD. Photo: Sotheby's 2014.

carved in the center with a large floral medallion in blue, amber and cream glazes on an amber ground, accented in wax-resist arcs and stipples at the cavetto, the exterior glazed amber stopping before the flat base to show the pinkish buff ware.

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong, early 1980s.

Note: Of all sancai wares produced comparatively few are enhanced with cobalt blue. The major kiln associated with its ability to produce the best quality sancai and blue-glazed wares and figures are the kilns at Huangye, Gongyi, Henan. For a shard of similar form and decoration see Three-Colour Glazed Pottery Kilns of the Tang Dynasty at Huangye, Henan Province, 2000, col. pl. no. 10-3, sample no. 1053. Compare a sancai basin of this shape and size with almost identical blue-splashed decoration on the side of its interior and similar floral design in the center, unearthed from Sanyuan county in 1974 and presently kept in the Sanyuan County Museum, Shaanxi province, illustrated in National Treasure Collection of Rare Cultural Relics of Shaanxi Province, Xi'an, 1998, pl. 10.