Lot 258. A rare blue and amber-glazed pottery tripod vessel, lian, Tang dynasty (618-907); 6 in. (16.2 cm.) high. Estimate USD 40,000 - USD 60,000. Price realised USD 66,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2007

The ribbed cylindrical body covered on the inside with a glaze of amber tone and on the rim and exterior with a blue glaze that continues onto the cabriole legs and under the lower edge of the otherwise unglazed base showing the buff ware, box.

Note: Compare the blue-glazed lian in the Eumorfopoulos Collection, illustrated by R. L. Hobson in Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, New York, 1915, pl. 8, fig. 1. And another illustrated in the catalogue of the Exhibition of Chinese Arts, C. T. Loo & Co., New York, 1 November 1941 - 30 April 1942, no. 467. See, also, the smaller green-glazed example illustrated by J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 1, Geneva, 1968, A3.

A slightly smaller green-glazed lian, also with yellow glaze on the interior, excavated from a Tang tomb in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, and now in the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, is illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji: Sui and Tang, vol. 5, Shanghai, 2000, p. 209, no. 227. 

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C103w89 is consistent with the dating of this lot. 

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 22 March 2007