Lot 1473. A rare Junyao water pot-brush washer, Jin-Yuan dynasty, 12th-13th century; 5 in. (12.6 cm.) across. Estimate $30,000 - $50,000. Price Realized $37,500. photo Christie's Ltd 2011

Unusually made in the shape of two conjoined pomegranate-form water pots attached to a small cup with slightly everted rim, each water pot with a small hole in one side and the cup with two holes in the adjoining walls that allow water to flow in from each pomegranate, covered overall with an opaque glaze of milky blue color highlighted with splashes of purple that thins on edges to mushroom color and falls in an irregular line to the shallow ring foot of each receptacle exposing the granular ware, box.

Provenance: The Montague Meyer Family Collection of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art; Christie's, London, 14 April 1980, lot 229.
Christie's, New York, 29-30 November 1984, lot 94.
Gisèle Cröes, Brussels, 1985. 

Note: This very rare pomegranate-form combination water pot/brush washer is similar to another, also with Jun glaze, included in the exhibition, Song Ceramics from the Kwan Collection, 22 July - 11 September 1994, Hong Kong Museum of Art, no. 46. Another combination water pot/brush washer imitating a natural shape is the Southern Song dynasty Guan ware example formed as two side-by-side lotus pods illustrated in the Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, London, 1935-6, no. 854, which was on loan from the Chinese Government. 

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Part I & II,  15 - 16 September 2011. New York, Rockefeller Plaza.