Lot 1452. A phosphatic glaze-splashed brown-glazed stoneware jar and cover, Tang dynasty (618-907); 11¾ in. (29.9 cm.) high. Estimate USD 7,000 - USD 9,000. Price realised USD 13,750. © Christie's Images Ltd 2011

Probably from the Dundian kilns, Lushan county, of ovoid form with short neck and out-curved rim, covered inside and out with a glaze of dark olive-brown color splashed on the the rim and shoulder with splashes of milky, pale blue tone that trail down the body on one side towards where the brown glaze ends in an irregular line above the neatly finished foot to expose the granular ware, the conical cover with everted rim and bud-form finial similarly glazed.

Provenance: In the Booth Collection, United States, by the mid 1990s. 

Note: Splash-glazed wares were made in the Tang dynasty primarily in Henan province, where several kilns that produced them have been found. The earliest discoveries were the kilns of Huangdao in Jiaxian, after which these wares are ofen named, though other kiln sites have been found in the area of Jiaocheng, Shanxi province. See Fen Xianming et al., Zhongguo taocishi, Beijing, 1982, p. 213. As can be seen on this jar, the brown glaze applied to the body typically stops short of the base. The pale blue splashes were applied after glazing, often poured onto the pot held in a sideways or an inverted position.

A similar jar is illustrated by R. Ward and P.J. Fidler (eds.), The Nelson-Atkins Musuem of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, New York, 1993, p. 294. 

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Part I & II, 15 September 2011, New York