Lot 127. A rare 'Yue' figure of a recumbent ram, Western Jin dynasty, 3rd century AD. Length 16.3 cm, 6⅜ in. Estimate: 20,000 - 30,000 GBP. Lot sold 40,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby's.

the large and well-modelled animal with its front and rear legs folded beneath the body, with a curvaceous spine and robust rump, its head raised and with a pierced aperture on top, detailed with a pair of bulging eyes and curled striated horns encircling large ears, a striated bead below the slightly open mouth, all highlighted with dark iron splashes and applied overall with an olive-green glaze.

Note: Stoneware figures of recumbent rams kneeling with their forelegs and their hind legs tucked-in and covered in this olive-green glaze, belong to a group of playful objects for the scholar’s desk made in kilns in northern Zhejiang and southern Jinagsu province. Numerous vessels of this type, in the form of various animals, have been recovered from tombs of the Three Kingdoms (220-265) and Western Jin dynasty (265-316), suggesting they were treasured items.