Lot 98. A 'marbled glaze' stem cup, Song/Jin dynasty (960-1234); 8.5 cm diam; 5.7 cm high. Sold for US$2,816 (Estimate US$8,000-12,000). © Bonhams 2001-2025

With everted rim and supported by the splayed foot, covered inside and out with a finely 'marbled' wash under a clear crackled glaze.

Note: The present lot is a fine example of its type. The technique of 'marbled glaze' is mixing a deeper color in the light-color wash, rolling the vessel over the 'marbled' wash and finishing it with a clear glaze. Scholars generally agree that the 'marbled glaze' appeared later than 'marbled clay' and was a product of Song, Jin and Yuan dynasties.

Lot 100. Property from The Collection of. Dr. and Mrs. Richard Dickes. A carved large Cizhou sgraffiato vase, meiping, Song Dynasty (960-1279); 40.6cm high. Sold for US$12,800 (Estimate US$15,000-25,000). © Bonhams 2001-2025

The tall cylindrical body surmounted by a short, constricted neck and conical mouth, covered overall with creamy white slip under a clear glaze, decorated with stylized leafy scrolls and branches over a ring-punched ground, the inset foot unglazed showing light gray stoneware body.

Provenance: Flores & Iva, New York, 19 February 2001

Note: Compare the carved Cizhou meiping in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated by Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, p. 91, fig. 85. A carved Cizhou meiping of this type was sold at Christie's New York, 23 September 2022, lot 901.

The dating of this lot is consistent with the result of a thermoluminescence test, Oxford Authentication Ltd., no. P104a82, dated 27 January 2004.

Dr. and Mrs. Richard Dickes have been enthusiastic collectors and patrons of Asian art for over 50 years. The couple met in Brooklyn in 1964 and immediately recognized their shared interests in East Asian culture, lifelong learning, and serving their community.

Dr. Richard Dickes (1942-2023) was a graduate of Columbia College and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He was a clinical psychiatrist who served in that capacity for the U.S. Navy, and then practiced in Morristown, NJ for 45 years, including roles at the Morristown Medical Center as the Interim Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and on the Credentials Committee. Dr. Dickes was recognized for his extraordinary level of care to patients and their families, and for his dedication to teaching colleagues and future generations of practitioners. Ruth Dickes attended Cornell University and Brooklyn College before earning a Master of Science in Social Work at Columbia University. She was actively engaged in her community through volunteer work at local schools and the Morristown Medical Center. She served on the Collections Committee at the Brooklyn Museum for many years. From 2008 to 2020 she also worked at her husband's medical practice.

In their free time, Ruth and Richard pursued their passion for Asian art by traveling to Asia, frequenting museums, visiting galleries, attending lectures, and reading voraciously on the subject. They were involved in patron groups at numerous cultural institutions, including the Brooklyn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Princeton University Art Museum, China Institute, Asia House, American Friends of the Shanghai Museum, and later, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Through these associations they built lifelong friendships with curators, museum directors, dealers, and collectors. The Dickes eventually donated parts of their collection to the Brooklyn Museum, the Princeton University Art Museum, and LACMA.

The couple embarked on their collecting journey in the 1970s, encouraged by Richard's parents, Dr. and Mrs. Robert Dickes (1912-2009 and 1912-2010, respectively), who themselves collected Asian art, with an emphasis on religious art, Japanese ceramics, and East Asian ink painting. Ruth and Richard started their collection with Japanese ceramics and paintings, and ultimately expanded the scope to include Chinese, Korean and Indian works of art and paintings. They principally acquired pieces from dealers in New York City, including Fernando Flores, Frederick and Joan Baekeland, James Lally, and Joan Mirviss. At its height, the Dickes Collection encompassed hundreds of artworks spanning from the Neolithic period to the 20th century. While the couple maintained a deep appreciation of artistic traditions from across Asia, Chinese paintings, Tang dynasty tomb pottery, and Song dynasty ceramics held special significance for them.

Bonhams is pleased to present a selection of exquisite Chinese works of art from the Dickes Collection which reflect the quality, taste, and discernment that informed the couple's vision.

Lot 101. A carved Qingbai ewer and cover with matching warm bowl, Song Dynasty (960-1279); 15.9cm high. Sold for US$9,600 (Estimate US$15,000-25,000) © Bonhams 2001-2025

Following the metalware prototype, the ewer decorated with carved 'peony' around the shoulder, the cylindrical cover mounted with a lion finial, the warming bowl decorated with the same 'peony' roundels, glazed inside and out except under the foot revealing white porcelaneous body.

Provenance: Flores & Iva, New York, 10 September 2001 or 12 February 2002

Note: Compare the similar set of Qingbai ewer and warming bowl illustrated by Tseng and Dart, The Charles B. Hoyt Collection in the Museum of Fine Arts: Boston, Volume II, Cambridge, 1972, no. 78.

Lot 103. A carved Qingbai 'boys' bowl, Song dynasty (960-1279); 20.3cm diam. Sold for US$3,584 (Estimate US$2,500-4,000). © Bonhams 2001-2025

The interior freely decorated with two baby boys playing amidst two stylized floral scrolls, glazed inside and out with a translucent icy-blue glaze, the shallow foot partially glazed showing remains of a kiln support from firing.

Note: A very similar Qingbai-glazed bowl of the same pattern is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, acquired in honor of esteemed scholar and curator James C. Y. Watt, accession number 2011.201.

Lot 107. A Dingyao deep bowl, Song dynasty (960-1279); 16cm diam. Sold for US$7,040 (Estimate US$5,000-10,000). © Bonhams 2001-2025

Decorated with a medallion of freely incised lotus pattern at the center of the well, the everted rim and the ring foot neatly pared, the creamy white glaze covered inside and out except the mouth rim with typical 'tear mark' streaks on the exterior wall.

Provenance: Unique Art Collections, Taipei, 23 March 1997, lot 1167 (part lot)

Penglai Shanfang Collection, Tainan, Taiwan

Connecticut Private Collection

Lot 108. A black-glazed russet-splashed conical tea bowl, Song dynasty, Dangyangyu kiln; 10.7cm diam (fitted box). Sold for US$12,800 (Estimate US$10,000-15,000). © Bonhams 2001-2025

Well-proportioned with an everted rim, the neatly pared foot showing buff stoneware body.

Lot 110. An unusual Qingbai barbed rim petal-lobed cup, Southern Song-Yuan dynasty (1127-1368); 11.5cm diam. Sold for US$70,350 (Estimate US$10,000-15,000). © Bonhams 2001-2025

Finely molded to represent a flower bud, the hollow domed center containing a movable pistil in the form of a figure which floats when filled with water, the vessel covered overall in an attractive icy-blue glaze, the base unglazed revealing the fine porcelain body.

Note: A very similar Qingbai cup with 'chrysanthemum' rim was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 6 April 2015, lot 1.

Lot 111. A rare  Henan celadon rimmed dish, Song dynasty, possibly Zhanggongxiang ware (1127-1368); 25.4 cm diam (fitted box). Sold for US$95,750 (Estimate US$30,000-50,000). © Bonhams 2001-2025

The sides deeply rounded with a neatly pared rim on the exterior, the base with five small spur marks within the short ring foot, covered overall in an attractive sea-green celadon glaze finely crackled throughout, broken and restored with minimal in-fills.

Note: The discovery and excavation of the Zhanggongxiang kiln site took place between 2000-2004, in the southern part of Ruzhou city, Henan province. The green-glazed shards unearthed within this 1.4 square-mile area share many similarities with vessels from the Northern Song dynasty Ru kiln at Qingliangsi, Baofeng, approximately 18 miles away. Scholars in China and overseas were deeply impressed by the quality of the production, and some were of the opinion that Zhanggongxiang kiln was making 'official ware' for the Northern Song court. Based on archaeological finds, the firing period appeared to fall between late Northern Song to early Yuan dynasty.

As described by Sun Xinmin, "Excavation and Preliminary Study of the Zhanggongxiang Kilnsite in Ruzhou", Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, London, Vol. 69, 2004-05, pp. 11-17, "the glaze of the Zhanggongxiang wares is paler and the surface is smooth and glassy, with only a fragmentary crackle. ... To date no green glazed ceramics from the Zhanggongxiang kiln have been found in the Imperial Palace Collections in Beijing and Taipei; that is in porcelain collections handed down through the generations."

The present lot bears characteristics of the Zhanggongxiang ware: the refined potting and glassy green glaze with orderly spur marks and neatly pared ring foot. The generous size of the dish is also a rare find, making it an excellent study piece for any private or museum collection.

The result of the thermoluminescence testing is consistent with the suggested dating of this lot, Oxford Authentication sample No. P123m13, 21 September 2023.

Lot 112. A Cizhou white-glazed jar, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 14 cm diam. Sold for US$8,320 (Estimate US$8,000-2,000). © Bonhams 2001-2025

Of compressed globular shape with lobed sides and short everted rim, covered inside and out a transparent glaze over a creamy white slip which stops just above the neatly pared foot revealing the light gray porcelaneous body.

Provenance : F. Low-Beer & Co., New York, label no. 373
From the Collection of Carl Kempe (1884-1967), Sweden, no. 150

Lot 113. A small 'marbled' bowl, Song dynasty (960-1279); 9.4 cm diam (fitted box). Sold for US$20,480  (Estimate US$15,000-20,000). © Bonhams 2001-2025

The hemispherical body rising from a short ring foot to the mouth rim painted with a ring of beige slip, the brown and beige 'feather' patterns of 'twisted clays' visible under a transparent glaze, the base unglazed showing the same 'twisted clays' stoneware body.

Provenance : Estate of Albert and Leonie van Daalen, Switzerland
Christie's London, 5 November 2019, lot 23

Lot 113. A Jianyao 'hare's fur' tea bowl, Song dynasty, with Gongyu mark; 12.6 cm diam (fitted box). Sold for US$53,760 (Estimate US$10,000-15,000). © Bonhams 2001-2025

The gently rounded sides rising from a small foot, the rim with an indented 'finger groove' and partly covered with a band of degraded silver mount, glazed inside and out with a glossy black glaze showing a dense pattern of striated lines, the exposed stoneware body fired reddish tan, the base with carved gong yu mark.

Provenance : Collection of Wangzhaolou, Taiwan

Published: The Wangzhaolou Collection of Ceramics, Song Dynasty, I-II, Taipei, 2017, pp. 194-195

Note: As described by Robert Mowry, "Though treasured by emperors, Jian ware was not an imperial ware per se, in that the kilns did not produce ceramics exclusively for the court, nor were they owned, operated, or supervised by the government. Because Jian tea bowls were prized at court, however, the kilns supplied tribute ware each year." A Jianyao russet-glazed 'hare's fur' tea bowl with gongyu mark in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums is illustrated by Robert Mowry, Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers: Chinese Brown- and Black-Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Cambridge, 1996, pp. 204-209, where the author compares the stamped jinzhan ("presentation tea bowl") and the incised gongyu (imperial tribute) marks on the bases of Jianyao tea bowl, with extensive discussion citing known examples and historic records.

Notable examples of Jianyao 'hare's fur' tea bowl with gongyu mark include: in the Meiyintang collection and illustrated by Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Volume I, London, 1994, p. 285, no. 529; and sold by J.J. Lally & Co., New York, Song Dynasty Ceramics: The Ronald W. Longsdorf Collection, March 15-April 13, 2013, no. 40.

Lot 119. A Yaozhou celadon figural-form water dropper, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 12.6 cm diam (fitted box). Sold for US$25,600 (Estimate US$20,000-30,000). © Bonhams 2001-2025

The seated official wearing voluminous robe and a fitted hat, the face with a theatrical expression, the long beard held behind the folded arms, a small spout clinched at his right elbow, the back of the neck with a finger-size opening to the hollow interior, covered overall in an attractive olive-green glaze running in deeper tones at the recessed areas, the base unglazed showing the buff gray stoneware body.

Note: While small Yaozhou celadon figures exist in museum and private collections, it is exceeding rare to see a figural-form water dropper. Compare the two small Yaozhou figures illustrated by Kerr, Yaozhou Wares from Museums and Art Institutions Around the World Including Yaozhou Tribute Wares, Hong Kong, 2021, p. 70, no. 80, a seated woman holding a melon from the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, and no. 81 a seated boy from the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Bonhams. Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art including the Francine and Bernard Wald Collection of Fine Snuff Bottles, Part. New York, 17 March 2025