Lot 1. A 'Longquan' celadon tripod censer, Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). Width 9.5 cm, 3 3/4  in. Estimate 15,000 — 20,000 GBP. Courtesy Sotheby's

the compressed globular body rising from three short tapering legs to a short straight neck and broad everted rim, each leg with a narrow flange running up to a band at the shoulder, covered overall with an even matte blue-green glaze.

Provenance: Sotheby's New York, 7th November 1980, lot 153. 
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Bernat, New York. 

Property from the Rui Xiu Lou Collection.

Exhibited: Chinese Ceramics of the Sung Dynasty (960-1279), The Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, Exhibition April 11 - May 31, 1959, no. 34.  
On loan to the Museum of Fine Art, Boston (according to catalogue entry). 
Shiruku R ō do kot ō ji ten [Exhibition of Ceramics from the Silk Road], September 17 – 23, 1981, Art Gallery on the 8 th Floor of Matsuzakaya Honten, Nagoya.

Literature: Kristian Jacobsen and Charles E. Buckley, Chinese Ceramics of the Sung Dynasty, Manchester, New Hampshire, 1959, pl. 34.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, London, 15 may 2019, 10:30 AM