Lot 217. Property from the Junkunc Collection. A 'Jian' 'hare's fur' conical bowl, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) and a 'Henan' iron-brown-decorated teadust-glazed conical bowl, Jin dynasty (1115-1234). Diameter of larger 15.8 cm. Lot sold 4,800 USD (Estimate 4,000 - 6,000 USD). © Sotheby's.

Provenance: Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).

Lot 218. A carved 'Yaozhou' celadon-glazed 'floral' bowl, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) . Diameter 14 cm, Japanese wood box (3). Lot sold 7,200 USD (Estimate 5,000 - 7,000 USD). © Sotheby's.

Provenance: Japanese Private Collection.

Sen Shu Tey, Tokyo.

Lot 220. A superb 'Jian' 'hare's fur' bowl, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) . Diameter 12.7 cm. Lot sold 54,000 USD (Estimate 20,000 - 30,000 USD). © Sotheby's.

Provenance: The Yang De Tang Collection. 

Sotheby's New York, 17th March 2015, lot 90.

Lot 221. A carved 'Cizhou' 'floral' dish, Jin dynasty (1127-1279) . Diameter 24.9 cm. Lot sold 4,800 USD (Estimate 4,000 - 6,000 USD). © Sotheby's.

Lot 222. A rare and large 'Xing' conical bowl, Tang dynasty-Five Dynasties (615-960) . Diameter 21.7 cm. Lot sold 13,200 USD (Estimate 8,000 - 12,000 USD). © Sotheby's.

Provenance: Collection of Gustaf Lindberg (1887-1961).

Sotheby's London, 12th December 1978, lot 115.

Michael Weisbrod Chinese Art, New York.

Literature: Gustaf Lindberg, 'Porcellanous Ware - Porcelain: Remarks Concerning Some Early Ceramic Wares of China', Ethnos, 1947, fig. 1 (center). 

Gustaf Lindberg, 'Hsing Yao: Attempt at an Interpretation of the T'ang Hsing Chou Ware', Oriental Art, Spring 1950, figs 1 (center) and 4 (top). 

Gustaf Lindberg, 'Hsing-Yao and Ting-Yao: An Investigation and Description of some Chinese T'ang and Sung White Porcelain in the Carl Kempe and Gustaf Lindberg Collections', Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, vol. 25, 1952, pls 7-8. 

Note: The Xing kilns in Lincheng and Neiqiu counties of Hebei province were probably the most successful producers of white wares in terms of the material used, potting, glazing and firing of pieces during the Tang dynasty. Xing wares were likened to silver by the contemporary elite. According to Regina Krahl, the quality of wares produced at the Xing kilns increased substantially from the mid-Tang period onward, with the body becoming more porcellaneous and the glaze achieving a very smooth quality with a distinct blue tinge. See Regina Krahl, 'Bright as Silver, White as Snow - White Wares of North and South China', in Bright as Silver. White as Snow. Chinese White Ceramics from Late Tang to Yuan Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1998, pp 15-24. The current bowl is of unusually large size, with a thick attractive creamy-white glaze, and preserved in very good condition.

Gustaf Lindberg (1887-1961) was a peer of fellow early Chinese ceramic connoisseurs King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and Carl Kempe.

Lot 224. A carved 'Ding' 'floral' foliate dish, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) . Diameter 15.6 cm. Lot sold 24,000 USD (Estimate 10,000 - 15,000 USD). © Sotheby's.

Provenance: Hong Kong Private Collection.

Lot 225. A superb molded 'Ding' white-glazed 'geese' bowl, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234) . Diameter 19.1 cm. Lot sold 96,000 USD (Estimate 80,000 - 120,000 USD). © Sotheby's.

Provenance: Collection of Sakamoto Gorō (1923-2016).

Sotheby's New York, 17th March 2015, lot 9.

Note: This intricately rendered scene of geese flying within a floral ground is notable for the depth and clarity of the molded design. Ding ware tended to imitate other precious materials such as lacquer, gold and silver, quantities of which were stored in palace treasuries. From the late Northern Song period (early twelfth century), Ding-ware craftsmen moved away from hand-carved decoration to using mushroom-shape molds which were similar to those used for casting gold and silver vessels. The clay was pressed onto the relief-decorated mold before the edges were trimmed down to ensure the wares retained the forms as well as the thinness and lightness of precious materials. This new technique allowed for the manufacture of a large number of vessels, thereby satisfying the needs of the market.

Bird and flower designs of this type also reveal the influence of textiles on molded Ding ware, which bears a resemblance to rich brocaded textiles of the period. A related bowl impressed with geese among clouds and melon vines, but with a plain circular rim is preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum's exhibition White Ding Wares from the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2014, cat. no. II-150, together with another depicting Mandarin ducks and fish, cat. no. II-151. Bowls of related form, decorated with various species of birds among flowers, include a foliate example impressed with phoenix, lotus and fish, in the Baur collection, published in John Ayers, The Baur Collection, vol. 1, Geneva, 1968, pl. A18; and two illustrated in Jan Wirgin, Sung Ceramic Designs, Stockholm, 1970, with phoenix and flowers from the Museum of Eastern Art, Oxford, pl. 85a, and with ducks, lotus and fish, pl. 89a, from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Shards of a bowl decorated with phoenix and peonies, excavated from the Ding kiln site in Quyang County, Hebei province, was included in the exhibition Ding Ware. The World of White Elegance – Recent Archaeological Findings, The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2013, cat. no. 44.

For a Ding bowl mold, incised with phoenix and flowers, the reverse incised with an inscription dating it to 1184, from the collection of Sir Percival David and now in the British Museum, London, see Margaret Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Ting and Allied Wares, London, 1980, pl. 46.

Lot 229. A small 'Longquan' celadon-glazed tripod censer, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) . Diameter 8 cm. Lot sold 14,400 USD (Estimate 4,000 - 6,000 USD). © Sotheby's.

Lot 230. A small 'Longquan' Guan-type crackled vase, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) . Height 10.7 cm. Lot sold 16,200 USD (Estimate 8,000 - 12,000 USD). © Sotheby's.

Lot 231. A rare 'Beishoku' celadon-glazed bottle vase and stand, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) . Height 19.5 cm. Lot sold 11,400 USD (Estimate 10,000 - 15,000 USD). © Sotheby's.

Provenance: Mathias Komor, New York.

Ara Hajin, Los Angeles, 2007.

Note: The term beishoku  ('rice colored', referring to the yellowish color of raw, unhulled rice grains, as opposed to mise in Chinese, which is used to describe opaque whitish glazes reminiscent of boiled, hulled rice) was first coined by the collector-connoisseur Tsuneo Yonaiyama, consul of Hangzhou in the 1950s, who collected many sherds from the Jiaotanxia kiln site. Highly revered for centuries in Japan since the Song dynasty, ceramics such as the present lot are most closely associated with the Guan and Longquan kilns.

Lot 232. A 'Yue' celadon-glazed ram-form water vessel, Western Jin dynasty (266-316) . Lenght 17.5 cm. Lot sold 12,000 USD (Estimate 10,000 - 15,000 USD). © Sotheby's.

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong in the 1990s.

Note: Modeled as a recumbent ram, this charming piece belongs to a group of playful vessels made for the scholar’s desk that were produced in the kilns of northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu provinces. Vessels of this form have been unearthed from Three Kingdoms and Jin dynasty tombs, suggesting that they were highly treasured by their owners. Compare two similar rams in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures in the Palace Museum. Porcelain of the Jin and Tang Dynasties, Hong Kong, 1996, pls 30 and 31; one in The Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, published in The Tsui Museum of Art. Chinese Ceramics I. Neolithic to Liao, Hong Kong, 1991, pl. 58; and another from the collection of Sir Alan and Lady Barlow, now preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and illustrated in Michael Sullivan, Chinese Ceramics, Bronzes and Jades in the collection of Sir Alan and Lady Barlow, London, 1963, pl. 71a. For a ram water vessel, similarly modeled as the present lot, see one sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 5th November 1996, lot 659.

Lot 233. A 'Yue' celadon-glazed 'frog' jar, Eastern Jin dynasty (317-420) . Diameter 16 cm. Lot sold 9,600 USD (Estimate 8,000 - 12,000 USD). © Sotheby's.

Provenance: Alvin Lo & Co. Ltd., Hong Kong, 1990s.

Lot 234. A 'Yue' celadon-glazed turtle-form waterpot, Western Jin dynasty (266-316) . Lenght 11 cm. Lot sold 3,600 USD (Estimate 3,000 - 5,000 USD). © Sotheby's.

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong in the 1990s.

Lot 235. A 'Yue' celadon-glazed frog-form wwaterpot, Western Jin dynasty (266-316) . Lenght 11 cm. Lot sold 6,000 USD (Estimate 5,000 - 7,000 USD). © Sotheby's.

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong in the 1990s.

Lot 237. Property from the Junkunc Collection. A 'Longquan' celadon-glazed 'peony' vase, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). Height 53.5 cm. Lot sold 7,800 USD (Estimate 5,000 - 7,000 USD). © Sotheby's.

Provenance: Frank Caro, successor to C.T. Loo, New York, 12th November 1964.

Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).

Lot 238. A 'Longquan' celadon-glazed and biscuit figure of a seated Guanyin, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). Height 25,9 cm. Lot sold 19,200 USD (Estimate 15,000 - 20,000 USD). © Sotheby's.

Provenance: Italian Private Collection

Lot 239. A 'Longquan' celadon-glazed and biscuit figure of Budai, Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Height 22.1 cm, woodv stand. Lot sold 14,400 USD (Estimate 12,000 - 15,000 USD). © Sotheby's.

Provenance: Collection of Arthur (1924-2007) and Sara Jo (1928-2019) Kobacker.

Sotheby's New York, 14th September 2019, lot 1764.

Sotheby's. Chinese Art, New York, 18 September 2024