Lot 1301. A white-glazed pottery compressed pear-shaped jar, Sui-Tang dynasty, 6th-7th century; 4¼ in. (11cm.) high. Estimate 10,000 - USD 15,000. Price realised 30,000 USD. © Christie's Image Ltd 2010

The squat, globular body below a stepped neck and widely-flaring rim, all covered in a finely-crackled, lustrous glaze stopping short of the flat foot.

Provenance: British Rail Pension Fund; Sotheby's London, 12 December 1989, lot 63.

Note: See Mayuyama, Chugoku Bunbutsu Kenbun, Tokyo, 1948, pl. 87, for a similar vase in the Shaanxi Province Museum, Xian, from the tomb of Li Jingxun (A.D.608) at Liangjiazhuang, Western Suburbs of Xian.

Compare, also, the figure of a lady carrying a similar vase, included in the O.C.S. Exhibition of the Arts of the T'ang Dynasty, London, 1955, no.44, pl.6, together with another vase of this form, no.215, both from the Swedish Royal Collections.

See, also, the bronze prototype of this form illustrated by W.P. Yetts, The Eumorfopoulos Collection, London, 1929, vol. I, pl. XLIV, no. A 58.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 16 - 17 September 2010