Lot 2025. A Karatsu tea bowl, Japan, Momoyama period, late 16th - early 17th century; h. 10.2 cm, l. 12.8 cm . Estimate: 20,000 - 30,000 HKD. Lot sold: 56,700 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's. Provenance: Cabinet Portier & Associés, Paris. Sotheby's . Eclectic...

Pottery is amazingly strong, yet vulnerable to breakage. Japanese artists invented a distinctive way of mending ceramics. They drew on the ancient tradition of using the plant resin lacquer as a glue to rejoin broken ceramics but transformed the appearance...