Lot 37. A celadon-glazed ewer and cover, Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127); 23.5cm high (2). Sold for €2,048. © Bonhams 2001-2024

Potted with a generous globular body raised on a short flared foot, surmounted by a short tubular neck, set on one side with an upright strap handle and with a gently curved spout on the other side, the cylindrical cover with a flat knop, covered overall with a lustrous pale celadon glaze, the base unglazed.

Provenance: A European Private Collection.

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no.P123q91 dated 12 December 2023, is consistent with the dating of this lot.

Note: This rare ewer would originally have had a basin of corresponding form. Not many examples of this type of ewer are known. They include a Yue ewer decorated with an incised design of twin parrot medallions in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, published in Suzanne Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1975, p.78, no.72a. Another example of a Yue ewer from the Meiyintang collection is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 1, London, 1994, p.181, no.312. Another ewer of this shape excavated from Cixi, Zhejiang, is included in Zhongguo taoci quanji: 6, Tang, Wudai, Shanghai, 2000, no.164.

Bonhams. CHINESE ART, Paris, 12 June 2024