Lot 840. A Cizhou sgraffiato deep bowl, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 6 ½ in. (16.5 cm.) high. Estimate USD 6,000 - USD 8,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

The bowl has widely flared, rounded sides and is covered with a white slip on the exterior where it is carved through to the body with a large peony spray reserved on a combed ground below a line border, all under a clear glaze that falls irregularly on the exterior towards the unglazed foot to expose the pale grey stoneware, Japanese wood box.

Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Kunryudo, Tokyo.

Note: Compare a similar Cizhou-type bowl, of approximately the same size (23 cm.), in the Peter Selinka Collection, illustrated in Chinesische Keramik: Meisterwerke aus Privatsammlungen, Cologne, 1988, p. 66, pl. 36, where it is dated Jin dynasty.