Lot 8. A pair of blue and white garden seats, Ming dynasty, Wanli period (1573-1619); 36.5cm., 14 3/8 in. Estimate 30,000—40,000 GBP. Lot Sold 73,250 GBP. photo Sotheby's.

each of bombe rounded form with a lion mask handle applied to each side at the centre of the body, painted with a wide central band of peacocks amongst peony issuing from rockwork, between two bands of raised bosses, above a band of breaking waves at the base and below a band of shaped cloud collar panels of peony, the upper surface with four Buddhistic lions playing animatedly with brocade balls, around a central pierced roundel in the form of a coin.

Provenance: Christie's New York, 20^th September 2002, lot 318.

Note: A related seat, in the Shanghai Museum, is illustrated in Wang Qingzheng, Underglaze Blue and Red, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 231, fig. 5, and was included in the exhibition A L'ombre des Pins. Chefs-D'oeuvre D'art Chinois du Musee de Shanghai, Musees D'art et D'histoire, Geneva, 2004, cat. no. 120; and two further examples were sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 17^th May 1988, lot 135, and 17^th November 1975, lot 195.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, London, 12 may 2010