Lot 871. A small Jun dish, Northern Song-Jin dynasty, 11th-12th century; 4 7/8 in. (12.5 cm.) diam., cloth box. Price realised USD 10,710 (Estimate USD 6,000 – USD 8,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023
Provenance: Collection of Ivan Traugott (1871-1952), Stockholm.
Bukowskis, Stockholm, 7 December 2012, lot 1456.
J. J. Lally & Co., New York, no. 4746.
Note: A very similar blue-glazed Jun dish formerly in the collection of Edward T. Chow is illustrated by R. Krahl in Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 1, London, 1994, p. 220, no. 382. The author refers to similar dishes in the Ru Kiln Museum, Ruzhou, Henan province illustrated in Ruyao de xin faxian (New Discoveries of Ru Kiln), Beijing, 1991, pls. 46 and 128 and suggests that this form of dish may have been used together with small matching bowls, as both covers and stands.
Lot 872. A large purple-splashed Jun bowl, Jin-Yuan dynasty, 13th-14th century; 8 in. (20.2 cm.) diam., cloth box. Price realised USD 25,200 (Estimate USD 8,000 – USD 12,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023
The bowl has gently rounded flaring sides and is covered overall with a glaze of pale milky blue thinning to a mushroom color at the rim. There is a large reddish-purple glaze splash on the interior that drips over to the exterior, and two small reddish-purple drips in the well.
Provenance: Collection of Alexandre J. Argyropoulos (1894-1978), Greek Ambassador to China, late 1940s-early 1950s, and thence by descent within the family.
J. J. Lally & Co., New York, no. 4244.
Note: A slightly larger, purple-splashed Jun bowl, from the Songde Tang Collection, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3 December 2021, lot 2813. See, also, a Jun bowl with a purple splash on the interior, illustrated in Beauty & Entirety - Ceramics of the Song Dynasty from The Palace Museum, Museum of Art in Macau, 2012, pl. 38.
Lot 873. A Jun deep bowl, Northern Song-Jin dynasty, 11th-12th century; 7 1/2 in. (19.1 cm.) diam., cloth box. Price realised USD 16,380 (Estimate USD 8,000 – USD 12,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023
The bowl has deep rounded sides rising from the slightly tapered foot to the slightly incurved rim, and is covered overall with a glaze of milky, sky-blue tone thinning to mushroom at the rim and falling in a somewhat irregular line onto the foot. The recessed, unglazed base is inscribed with two characters in faint black ink.
Provenance: Collection of Alexandre J. Argyropoulos (1894-1978), Greek Ambassador to China, late 1940s-early 1950s, and thence by descent within the family.
J. J. Lally & Co., New York, no. 4243.
Note: A similar blue-glazed Jun bowl is illustrated by R.Krahl in Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994, vol. I, p. 221, no. 387. See, also, the Northern Song blue-glazed Jun bowl of this form and of similar size in the collection of Henan Provincial Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo Taoci Quanji: Song (The Complete Works of Chinese Ceramics: Song), vol. 7, Shanghai, 1999, p. 184, no. 186, with description on p. 274.
Lot 874. A large Jun tripod censer, Northern Song-Jin dynasty, 12th-13th century; 6 in. (15.2 cm.) high, hardwood stand, cloth box. Price realised USD 52,920 (Estimate USD 40,000 – USD 60,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023
The compressed globular body is supported on three short feet and is surmounted by a wide cylindrical neck rising from the shoulders to an everted rim with upturned lip. The censer is covered overall with a lightly crackled sky-blue glaze of even tone thinning at the rim to a pale mushroom color.
Provenance: Collection of Alexandre J. Argyropoulos (1894-1978), Greek Ambassador to China, late 1940s-early 1950s, and thence by descent within the family.
J. J. Lally & Co., New York, no. 4247.
Note: The large size of this censer is very unusual, as most Jun censers are of smaller size with somewhat shorter necks. A Jun censer of similar size is illustrated by R. Hobson in A Catalogue of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain in the Collection of Sir Percival David Bt., F.S.A., London, 1934, pl. LXVII; and again by S. Pierson in Illustrated Catalogue of Ru, Guan, Jun, Guangdong and Yixing Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1999, rev. ed., p. 38, col. pl. 95, with description on p. 50. See, also, a smaller Jun censer of very similar form with sky-blue glaze in the collection of the Idemitzu Museum of Art, illustrated in So ji: shinpo no yakimono (Song Ceramics: Utensils of Sublime Beauty), Tokyo, 2018, p. 72, no. 54, with description on p. 147, and the smaller Jun censer with shorter neck sold at Christie's New York, 18-19 March 2021, lot 886.
Christie's. J. J. Lally & Co., New York, 23 march 2023
