Lot 115. A blue splashed pottery jar and cover, Tang dynasty (618-907). Height 8  1/4  in., 20.9 cm. Estimate 10,000 — 15,000 USD. Lot Sold 25,000 USD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

of slightly compressed ovoid form, the rounded sides tapering to a short splayed foot, and rising to an everted lipped rim, the buff pinkish body covered by a thin layer of white slip around the neck and sides, with irregular splashes of vibrant cobalt blue glaze cascading in painterly drips from the rim stopping just above the foot, against a pale yellow straw glaze suffused with a fine network of crackles, the domed cover similarly decorated with horizontal streaks of greenish-blue against a lustrous straw-glazed ground (2).

Provenance: William H. Wolff, 10th October 1960.
Collection of Stephen Junkunc III (d.1978). 

Note: One of the outstanding characteristics of Tang dynasty ceramic art is the bold application of vivid colored glazes on a pale or white ground. The present jar epitomizes this in a remarkably minimalist yet striking manner, with the painterly, abstract splashes of cobalt blue contrasting pleasingly against the ground of white slip and straw-colored glaze. This striking pattern highlights the piece's undulating profile, exemplifying the swelling forms and dynamic contours. Although Tang dynasty art borrows much from foreign sources, the present shape is considered to be wholly native.

An example of this type is illustrated in Geng Baochang, Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan [Compendium of Chinese Art- Porcelain], Taipei, 1993, pl. 433. Compare two sold in these rooms; the first 1st June 1972, lot 47, and the second with a double ring incised on the shoulder, sold 22nd September 2005, lot 285. See also a jar and cover sold at Christie's London, 11th July 2006, lot 100. A related jar, without the cover, is also in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, acc. no. 2006.170.264.

Sotheby's. Junkunc: Arts of Ancient China, New York, 9 March 2019