Lot 5001. An heirloom Longquan celadon tripod incense burner, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); w. 16.4 cm. Estimate 800,000 - 1,600,000 HKD. Lot sold 952,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

elegantly potted with a compressed globular body rising from three splayed cabriole legs to a cylindrical neck and everted rim, the exterior with three evenly spaced raised ridges extending from the shoulder down to the centre of each leg, covered overall with a lustrous soft bluish-celadon glaze stopping short of the tips of the legs and exposing the stoneware body, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Hirano Kotoken

Note: The delicate celadon glaze and clean profile of this incense burner demonstrate the level of artistic and technical refinement achieved at the Longquan kilns during the Southern Song dynasty. Distributed in southern Zhejiang province, these kilns had been producing fine celadon wares in the preceding Northern Song period, although their popularity peaked after the move of the Song capital to Hangzhou in 1135. The support of the newly-established court and the kilns' ability to produce very fine wares, gave an unprecedented boost to the Longquan kilns.

Both the court and scholar-officials that settled in Hangzhou favoured wares with seemingly modest forms but covered in mesmerising glazes with a depth of colour and tactility that resembled treasured jade. To recreate the jade-like appearance, craftsmen began replacing the traditional lime glaze used for making the celadon tone, with a lime-alkali glaze, which resulted in higher viscosity and softer gloss. The glaze was applied in multiple layers, thus appearing thick and lustrous.

Longquan craftsmen were quick at adapting to the demands of the Southern Song dynasty, whose aesthetic ideals were well-rooted in Neo-Confucian philosophy. Neo-Confucianism gave rise to a centralised bureaucracy governed by scholar-officials selected through civil service examinations. A class of highly educated government officials, who displayed an increasing interest in China's Bronze Age, thus emerged. This led to a revival of antiquarianism and the study of antiques and history, which were considered a guiding principle in the pursuit of virtue. Potters at manufactories in southern China adopted these principles and introduced archaic forms into their repertoire. The form of the present censer, for example, was inspired by archaic bronze liding, food vessels with tri-lobed bodies supported on three legs.

Longquan censers of this form are held in important museums and private collections worldwide: two censers in the Palace Museum, Beijing, are illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), Hong Kong, 1999, pls 121 and 122; one in the Tokyo National Museum, is published in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 97; a fourth piece came from the collection of Ichiro Hayashibara, sold twice in our London rooms in 7th November 2012, lot 220 and 15th May 2019, lot 19; and a further example from the Tokiwayama Bunko Foundation, Tokyo, sold in these rooms, 9th October 2020, lot 100.

Lot 5002. A rare and finely moulded Dingyao 'pomegranate' bowl, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234); 20.5 cm. Estimate 3,000,000 - 5,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 3,683,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

well potted with conical sides supported on a neatly knife-pared foot, the interior crisply moulded with three pomegranate sprays evenly spaced around the dish, each fruit emerging from a rhythmic arrangement of scrolling and swirling foliage, with leafy vines and stems gracefully curling and intertwining throughout the composition, further adorned with a floret at the centre, applied overall with an attractive transparent ivory-tinged glaze, metal-bound rim, Japanese double wood box.

Provenance: Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.
Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Literature: Koyama Fujio, Toki Koza [Lecture of Ceramics], vol. 6: Chgoku II So [China II Song], Tokyo, 1971, pl. 8 (top).
Chugoku Toji. Ise Korekushon / Chinese Ceramics. The Ise Collection, Tokyo, 2012, pp. 24-25.
Geijutsu Shincho [A Monthly Japanese Art Journal], May 2012 (Supplement), pl. 3.
Nagomi [A Monthly Magazine by Tankosha], Tankosha, Tokyo, May 2018, p. 7.
Christian Boehm, 'A Tea Master's Vision: Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection', Arts of Asia, July-August 2018, fig. 7.
Tosetsu / A Monthly Journal Published by The Japan Ceramic Society, vol. 803, March 2020, p. 10.

Exhibited: Toyokan Kaikan Kinen Toyo Bijutsu-ten [Exhibition of Eastern Art celebrating the opening of the Gallery of Eastern Antiquities], Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 1968, cat. no. 400.
Chugoku Toji Bi wo Mirukokoro [Chinese Ceramics, Enlightening through Beauty], Sen-oku Hakuko Kan, 2006, cat. no. 20.
Chugoku Toji Meihin Ten Ise Korekushon no Shiho / Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramic Art Exhibition, Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Ishikawa, 2012, cat. no. 29.
Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 11.
Ise Collection Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 20.
Toujikyokai Kaiin Gentei Dainikai Tokubetsu Kanshokai Ise Collection Chugoku Toji To, Hokuso, Nanso, Gen, Min, Shin [Special Exhibition for the members of The Japan Ceramic Society, Part 2, Chinese porcelains from Ise Collection; Tang, Northern Song, Southern Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing], Japan Ceramic Society, Tokyo, 2019, unillustrated.

Note: The art of mould-impressed decoration at the Ding kilns reached full maturity by the late Northern Song period, achieving even greater refinement under the Jin dynasty. While the use of reusable moulds increased production capacity, variations in impression depth and clarity inevitably occurred between individual pieces—making examples like the present bowl, with its exceptionally crisp design and lustrous glaze, particularly rare. The pomegranate scroll motif had already appeared during the Northern Song dynasty, as seen on an incised white-glazed bowl from the tomb of Han Zhi (1058-1124), see Anyang Hanqi jiazu mudi [The Han Qi Family Cemetery at Anyang], Beijing, 2012, fig. 25:2.

A closely related Jin dynasty bowl with pomegranate scrolls in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics: Ding Ware, Shanghai, 1983, no. 106. Compare also with another three relatable examples: a hexalobed bowl in the Palace Museum, Taipei, bearing virtually identical decoration, illustrated in Flowers in Frost: Special Exhibition of Ding-type White Wares, Taipei, 2014, p. 154, no. II-98; a bowl from the Ataka Collection, exhibited at the Kyoto National Museum and illustrated in Exhibition of Far Eastern Ceramics from the Ataka Collection, Kyoto, 1978, no. 27; and another published in Sekai Toji Zenshu/Ceramic Art of the World: Song Dynasty, Tokyo, 1977, vol. 12, p. 165, no. 146.

Lot 5003. A rare Qingbai 'floral' vase, meiping, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); 32 cm. Estimate 500,000 - 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 635,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

the rounded shoulders and gently tapering body surmounted by a tapering neck and carinated mouth, boldly carved with a luxuriant foliate meander of floral blooms borne on slender stems issuing large curling leaves, all on a 'combed' ground and within incised double-line bands, covered overall in a lustrous translucent pale blue glaze, pooling in the carved recesses and falling short of the foot, the unglazed base and lower foot burnt orange in the firing, Japanese double wood box.

Provenance: Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo

Note: A meiping vase with a similar flower scroll design was discovered in a Southern Song hoard in Suining, Sichuan province. This cache is thought to have been interred between the initial Mongol invasion in 1234 and the fall of the town in 1242, which is illustrated in Newly Discovered Southern Song Ceramics: A Thirteenth Century "Time Capsule" at the Odakyu Museum, Tokyo, 1998, pl. 61.

Compare also another meiping of this style, illustrated in The Complete Works of Chinese Ceramics, Shanghai, 1999, vol. 8, part II, no. 200, and another example in The Art Institute of Chicago, featuring crisply incised floral patterns, illustrated in Sekai Yoji Zenshu, vol. 12, Tokyo, 1977, pl. 167, and a third example from the same book at pl. 314, now preserved in the collection of Tokyo National Museum.

Lot 5004. A rare Cizhou black-glazed russet-splashed ribbed vase, Jin dynasty (1115-1234); 22.5 cm. Estimate 600,000 - 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,270,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

the baluster-shaped body gracefully rising from a splayed foot to a long trumpet-shaped neck and rolled rim, the body decorated with vertical raised ribs of white slip that show through the glossy dark glaze, the mouth accentuated with striking russet splashes in iron oxide, Japanese double wood box.

Provenance: Watanabe & Co., Ltd, Tokyo

Literature: Gakuji Hasebe, ed., Sekai Toji Zenshu: Chugoku So [Ceramic Art of the World: Song Dynasty], vol. 12, Tokyo, 1977, cat. no. 247.
Osaka Municipal Art Museum, ed., So Gen no Bijutsu [Arts of the Song and Yuan Periods], Osaka, 1980, pl. 181.
Christian Boehm, 'A Tea Master's Vision: Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection', Arts of Asia, July-August 2018, fig. 10.

Exhibited: So Gen no Bijutsu [Art of the Song and Yuan Dynasties] vol. 4, Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Osaka, 1978, cat. no. 1-198.
Tokubetsu Ten: Shiro to Kuro no Kyoen Chugoku Jishu-yo kei Toki no Sekai [Special Exhibition: Charm of Black & white Ware: Transition of Cizhou Type Wares], Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, Osaka, 2002, cat. no. 141.
Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 16.
Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 22.

Lot 5005. An incised Yue celadon 'crane' ewer, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 27.2 cm. Estimate 600,000 - 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,905,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

potted with a globular body rising from a splayed foot to a slender trumpet neck, set with an elongated spout opposite a curved double-strand handle, the body finely incised on each side with a crane soaring towards the spout amid ruyi clouds and below a floral band, the spout and handle terminal adorned with classic scrolls, further detailed with a trefoil floral motif beneath the spout, covered overall with a greyish olive-green glaze, Japanese double wood box.

Provenance: An old Korean collection.
Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Literature: Tosetsu / A Monthly Journal Published by The Japan Ceramic Society, vol. 803, March 2020, pl. 2.

Exhibited: Song Ceramics, Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo, 2014, cat. no. 12.
Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 15.
Toujikyokai Kaiin Gentei Dainikai Tokubetsu Kanshokai Ise collection Chugoku Toji To, Hokuso, Nanso, Gen, Min, Shin [Special Exhibition for the members of The Japan Ceramic Society, Part 2, Chinese porcelains from Ise Collection; Tang, Northern Song, Southern Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing], Japan Ceramic Society, Tokyo, 2019, unillustrated.Note:

Lot 5006. A small carved Dingyao 'peony' dish, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 13.5 cm. Estimate 400,000 - 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,397,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

potted with flaring sides rising from a slightly recessed base, the interior finely carved with a peony spray with combed petals, covered overall with an ivory-tinged white glaze, metal-bound rim, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Bluett & Sons Ltd, London.
Spink & Son Ltd, London, 1976.
Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Exhibited: An Exhibition of Song Ceramics, Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo, 2018, cat. no. 86.

Note: Compare two closely related dishes incised with peony housed in the Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Decorated Porcelains of Dingzhou: White Ding wares from the collection of the Palace Museum, Taipei, 2014, pp. 78 and 79.

Lot 5007. A rare and superb Longquan celadon phoenix-handled 'kinuta' vase, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); 27.5 cm. Estimate 800,000 - 1,600,000 HKD. Lot sold 3,429,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

elegantly potted with a cylindrical body rising to a gently angled shoulder sweeping up to a tall neck set with a pair of phoenix handles, all below a wide everted rim, applied overall save for the neatly finished footring with a soft, lustrous kinuta sea-green glaze, Japanese double wood box.

Provenance: Collection of Youichi Nakajima, former owner of Mitochu Tea Ceremony Shop, Nihonbashi, Tokyo, 1950-60s.
Linyushanren Collection.
Christie's New York, 15th September 2016, lot 717.
Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Literature: Nagomi [A Monthly Magazine by Tankosha], Tankosha, Tokyo, May 2018, p. 26.

Exhibited: Cha no Kokoro Nihon Sadou Togeishi Ten [Mind of Tea Ceremony, History of Ceramic in Japanese Tea Ceremony], Suntory Museum, Itsuo Art Museum, 1982, cat. no. 28.

Note: Glowing in a vibrant sea-green tone, the present vase is a particularly fine and rare example of the celebrated Longquan kinuta wares. Named after its resemblance to a paper mallet (kinuta in Japanese), the present grand yet understated vase form is among the most iconic and desirable of any early Chinese ceramics. Despite its ‘mallet’ name, however, many scholars argue that this now-ubiquitous kinuta form – of broad neck and crisp phoenix handles – was likely first introduced to China in the forms of glass vases and bottles from the Islamic West and Iran. Though these fine wares initially may have arrived in China as foreign wares, their shape, simplicity and beauty soon found them embraced in the Chinese artistic canon. Compare an Islamic glass bottle vase, for example, probably from Nishapur, Iran, among the treasures excavated from the tomb of the Princess of Chen, Liao dynasty, dated no later than 1018 and illustrated in Grand View: Special Exhibition of Ju Ware from the Northern Sung Dynasty, Palace Museum, Taipei, 2007, cat. no. 25, fig. 2; and similar fragments of glass vessels of this shape found in 1997 among the excavated material from the cargo of the Intan shipwreck excavated off the Indonesian coast, believed to date to the Northern Song period. As the Song dynasty scholar Hong Mai once noted in his Yi Jian Zhi, even Emperor Huizong himself was said to own a collection of imported glass; see China at the Inception of the Second Millennium, Art and Culture of Sung Dynasty, 960-1279, Palace Museum, Taipei, 2000, p. 121, fig. 2.

Kinuta vases of this size, fine potting and dazzling glaze quality are rare. Compare a vase in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, included in the exhibition Ice and Green Clouds. Traditions of Chinese Celadon, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, 1987, cat. no. 78; another in the Bishamon-do Temple, Kyoto, is illustrated in G. St. G. M. Gompertz, Chinese Celadon Wares, London, 1958, pl. 66; a third is in Longquan Celadon of China, Hangzhou, 1998, pl. 84; and a fourth with a galleried rim, preserved in the Taipei Palace Museum, published in Lung-ch'uan Ware of the Sung Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1962, pl. 6.

Lot 5008. An exceptional and very rare Cizhou sgraffiato 'peony' vase, meiping, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 30.9 cm. Estimate 7,000,000 - 14,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 19,895,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

elegantly potted with a tapered ovoid body rising to round shoulders, surmounted by a short neck with galleried rim, freely carved through the layer of dark brown slip to the ivory-white layer beneath with three large peony blooms borne on a meandering scroll with trefoil leaves, all between a collar and a skirt of narrow overlapping lappets, applied overall with a transparent glaze, the knife-cut footring and base unglazed, Japanese double wood box.

Provenance: Collection of Dikran Khan Kélékian (1868-1951).
Sotheby's New York, 17th September 1998, cover and lot 202.
Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Literature: Henri Rivière, La Céramique dans l'art d'Extrême-Orient, vol. II, Paris, 1923, pl. 57.
Chugoku Toji. Ise Korekushon / Chinese Ceramics. The Ise Collection, Tokyo, 2012, back cover and pp. 30-33.
Geijutsu Shincho [A Monthly Japanese Art Journal], May 2012 (Supplement), pl. 4.
Nagomi [A monthly magazine by Tankosha], Tankosha, Tokyo, May 2018, p. 10.
Christian Boehm, 'A Tea Master's Vision: Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection', Arts of Asia, July-August 2018, fig. 13.

Exhibited: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Louvre, Paris, 1914.
John Getz, The Kélékian Collection of Ancient Chinese Potteries, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1917, cat. no. 11.
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, 1931-1948.
So Ji – Shinpin to Yobareta Yakimono [Song Ceramics], Tobu Museum of Art, Tokyo/ Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka/ Hagi Uragami Museum, Hagi, 1999, cat. no. 91.
Tukubetsu Ten: Shiro to Kuro no Kyoen Chugoku Jishu-yo Kei Toki no Sekai [Special Exhibition: Charm of Black & White Ware: Transition of Cizhou Type Wares], Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, Osaka, 2002, cat. no. 52.
Chugoku Toji Bi wo Mirukokoro [Chinese Ceramics, Enlightening through Beauty], Sen-oku Hakuko Kan, 2006, cat. no. 24.
Chugoku Toji Meihin Ten Ise Korekushon no Shiho / Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramic Art Exhibition, Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Ishikawa, 2012, cat. no. 32.
Kaikan Sanjugoshunen Sinmeishou Sekou Kinen Tokubetukikakuten Nihon Chugoku Kankoku Toji no meihin, Koko ni Tsudou [Memorial Special Exhibition of 35th Anniversary and Remaing Enforcement Sense of Beauty: Impressive Masterpieces of the Ceramics of Japan, China and Korea], Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Aichi, 2013, cat. no. 40.
Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 21.
Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 26.

Note: Swirling with vibrant peonies, deftly carved as if flowing in the breeze, the present meiping is a rare and extraordinary example of the decorative wares produced at the Cizhou kilns of Hebei province in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Unlike more common carved or painted examples uncovered from the Cizhou kiln sites, the present vase features a rare and labour-intensive two-slip sgraffiato decoration. After two successive applications of white and black slip, the upper layer of black slip was then carefully incised and cut away to reveal the pristine white layer beneath and a clear glaze was applied over the top. This bold and painstaking process – cutting deep enough to reveal the white slip but not so deep as to reach the clay body below – presents the viewer with a peony design in crisp bichrome. Contrasting starkly against the brilliant white background below and drawing one’s eye around its scrolling design, this technique is typical of the highest quality of wares produced at the famous Guantai kilns in what has been termed the ‘later phase’ of Period 2 at the site, where artisans started producing decorative pieces in addition to functional ware and embraced two-slip sgraffiato and related peony designs. Compare related sherds featuring this technique uncovered from Guantai – the majority apparently uncovered from Northern Song dynasty strata – in Guantai Cizhou yao zhi / The Cizhou Kiln Site at Guantai, Beijing, 1997, col. pl. 21:2.

While similar examples of this design are attested in the world's leading collections, it is also worth noting the subtle variations across each piece – the gestural quality of the carving, the proportions of the blossoms, and the scrolling of the leaves – which highlight the individual effort in their making and mark them as individual works of art. Compare and contrast, for example, a closely related meiping preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 25.65), illustrated in Jan Wirgin, Sung Ceramic Designs, Stockholm, 1970, pl. 49b; and another from the Osgood Bequest to the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester (accession no. 1958.2) included in Yutaka Mino, Freedom of Clay and Brush through Seven Centuries in Northern China, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, 1980, pl. 39, alongside four other comparable examples in the Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto (accession no. GK159), fig. 97; the Museum Yamatao Bunkenkan, Nara, fig. 98; the National Museum of Korea, Seoul (accession no. Deoksu 2687), fig. 99; and the British Museum, London (accession no. 1968,0422.25) from the collection of Mrs Walter Sedgewick, fig. 100.

Compare also a very closely related example of this extraordinary type sold in our New York rooms, 9th December 1987, lot 243; another from the Linyushanren Collection, illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu / Ceramic Art of the World, vol. 12: Sung Dynasty, Tokyo, 1977, pl. 233, and sold Christie’s New York, 22nd March 2018, lot 516; a similar meiping of this type carved in a more informal style, sold in our New York rooms, 20th September 2000, lot 95, now preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (accession no. 2001.1); and another with clear glaze applied only to white-slipped areas, sold from the collection of Emmanuel Christofides (1928-2020) at Bonhams London, 15th May 2025, lot 28 (cover lot).

Lot 5009. A Longquan celadon incense burner, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); w. 23.5 cm. Estimate 800,000 - 1,600,000 HKD. Lot sold 2,032,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

of archaic bronze gui form, potted with a rounded lower body tapering towards the rim, the exterior encircled by a pair of raised ribs and flanked by a pair of handles in the form of a stylised beast, covered overall save for the mouth-rim and footring with an even sea-green glaze, Japanese double wood box.

Provenance: Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Exhibited: So Ji – Shinpi no Yakimono [Song Ceramics Utensils of Sublime Beauty], Idemitsu Museum of Art, Tokyo, 2018, cat. no. 92.
An Exhibition of Song Ceramics, Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo, 2018, cat. no. 5.

Note: This archaism in Song ceramics first emerged under imperial patronage during the Northern Song dynasty, gaining particular prominence during Emperor Huizong's reign (1100-1125) with the publication of official bronze catalogues such as the Xuanhe Bogu Tu. This vogue flourished further after the Shaoxing period (1131-1162) of the Southern Song, producing refined archaistic wares for both official and private use.

Compare a highly related celadon incense burner in a similar form, attributed to the Southern Song Xiuneisi official kiln, in the collection of the Palace Museum, Taipei , illustrated in Catalogue of Special Exhibition of Southern Sung Kuan Ware, Taipei, 1989, pl. 35. Compare also a close Longquan example, in the British Museum (acc. no. 1947,0712.114), illustrated in Rackham and King Hobson's Chinese Ceramics in Private Collections, London, 1931, p. 54, fig. 110.

Lot 5010. A large Junyao purple-splashed bowl, Northern Song - Jin dynasty (960-1234); 16.8 cm. Estimate 400,000 - 600,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,651,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

with deep rounded sides rising from a short foot to a slightly incurved rim, applied overall with a very glossy milky blue glaze draining to a mushroom tone at the rim and pooling neatly around the foot, decorated with vibrant reddish-purple splashes, the neatly pared footring revealing the buff body fired ash-grey, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Hirano Kotoken

Lot 5011. A qingbai melon-form ewer and cover, Northern Song dynasty (960-1279); h. 25 cm. Estimate 1,000,000 - 2,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 4,826,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

the melon-form lobed body rising from a flat base to a tall waisted neck, set with a strap handle opposite the long curved spout, the handle detailed with a small loop at the top, incised with a foliate motif beneath the handle and spout, the saucer-shaped cover set with a matching small loop and applied with a floral sprig as a knob, covered overall save for the base with a soft blue-tinged transparent glaze, Japanese double wood box.

Provenance: Collection of Ogura Takenosuke (1870-1964).
Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.
A Japanese private collection.
Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Literature: Koyama Fujio, Toki Koza [Lecture of Ceramics], vol. 6: Chugoku II So [China II Song], Tokyo, 1971, pl. 93.
Mayuyama: Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 423.
Chugoku Toji. Ise Korekushon / Chinese Ceramics. The Ise Collection, Tokyo, 2012, pp. 20-23.
Christian Boehm, 'A Tea Master's Vision: Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection', Arts of Asia, July-August 2018, fig. 9.

Exhibited: Chugoku Meitou Hyakusen Ten / Chinese Ceramics. A Loan Exhibition of One Hundred Selected Masterpieces, Takashimaya Osaka, Osaka, 1961, cat. no. 41.
Chugoku Meitou Ten / Chinese Ceramics. A Loan Exhibition of Selected Masterpieces, Fukuya, Hiroshima, 1961, cat. no. 36.
Chugoku So Gen Bijutsu Ten / Chinese Arts of the Sung and Yuan Periods, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 1961, cat. no. 228.
Kokuho wo Chushintosuru Kobijutsu Meihin / An Exhibition of Old Artworks Focusing on National Treasures, Tokyo Bijutsu Club, Tokyo, 2006, cat. no. 15.
Chugoku Toji Meihin Ten Ise Korekushon no Shiho / Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramic Art Exhibition, Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Ishikawa, 2012, cat. no. 24.
Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 13.
Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 16.
Toujikyokai Kaiin Gentei Dainikai Tokubetsu Kanshokai Ise collection Chugoku Toji To, Hokuso, Nanso, Gen, Min, Shin [Special Exhibition for the members of The Japan Ceramic Society, Part 2, Chinese Porcelains from Ise Collection; Tang, Northern Song, Southern Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing], Japan Ceramic Society, Tokyo, 2019, unillustrated.

Note: It is rare to find qingbai ewers preserved with their original covers. See an example in the Ataka Collection, now housed in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, accession no. 00623, illustrated in The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka Collection: The Eternal Beauty and Luster of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2012, p. 56, pl. 29.

Lot 5012. A rare Cizhou painted 'peony' truncated meiping, tulu vase, Jin dynasty (1115-1234); h. 21 cm. Estimate 400,000 - 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 762,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

well potted with an almost globular body rising from a countersunk base to a short waisted neck and flaring mouth-rim, the exterior freely decorated in dark brown slip and highlighted with incisions with three large peony blooms wreathed by slender leaves, all against a creamy-white slip applied to the exterior save for the footring showcasing the pale grey body, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Collection of Hoshun Yamaguchi (1893-1971).
Watanabe & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Literature: Tosetsu / A Monthly Journal Published by The Japan Ceramic Society, vol. 134, May 1964, pl. 13..
Tosetsu / A Monthly Journal Published by The Japan Ceramic Society, vol. 135, June 1964, pl. 159.
Christian Boehm, 'A Tea Master's Vision: Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection', Arts of Asia, July-August 2018, fig. 12.

Exhibited: To So Meito Ten [Exhibition of Tang-Song Ceramics], Japan Ceramic Society, Tokyo, 1964, cat. no. 159.
Toyo no Toji Aichiken Toji Shiryokan Honkan Kinen Tokubetsu Ten [Exhibition of Oriental Ceramics Special
Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 20.
Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 25.

Lot 5013. A rare and large heirloom Longquan celadon 'peony' tripod incense burner, Southern Song - Yuan dynasty (1127-1368); w. 22.5 cm. Estimate 2,000,000 - 3,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 1.651,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

of impressive size, superbly potted with a broad cylindrical body rising from three cabriole legs to a flat inturned rim, the exterior applied with six sprig-moulded peony blossoms borne on a slip-trailed meandering stem, framed within double-line borders, covered overall save for the footring with a lustrous sea-green kinuta glaze, the glaze pooling in the recesses to accentuate the relief decoration, Japanese double wood box and silver metal cover.

Provenance: Collection of the Date family, by repute.
Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Exhibited: Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 26.
Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 32.

Lot 5014. A Cizhou black-glazed ribbed jar, Jin dynasty (1115-1234); h. 20 cm. Estimate 400,000 - 600,000 HKD. Lot sold 406,400 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

of globular form, the sides covered with evenly-spaced raised vertical ribs and set with a pair of small strap loop handles on the shoulder, covered overall in a black glaze thinning to pale brown at the raised ribs and stopping well short of the foot, exposing the buff coloured body, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Watanabe & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Exhibited: Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 17.
Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 23.

Note: The attractive ribs adorning this jar were carefully applied in slip onto the surface of the vessel before the application of glaze. During firing, the glaze pulled away from the ribs, resulting in a striking contrast of delicate white lines emerging from a glossy black ground. A slightly larger example, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Janos Szekeres, was included in the exhibition Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell and Partridge Feathers, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Mass., 1995, cat. no. 61, where it is noted that these ribs were first used on ceramics during the Tang dynasty in imitation of Tang lacquer and silver, and emerged as a decorative category by the 12th century. Another example was included in the exhibition Heaven and Earth Seen Within, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, 2000, cat. no. 30; another, from the collection of Frederick Mayer, was sold at Christie’s London, 24th June 1974, lot 51. See also an example in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, included in the Museum’s exhibition Cizhou Ware of China – Its Charm and Taste, Tokyo, 2005, cat. no. 30; and another, from the collection of Capt. Dugald Malcolm and now in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Jan Wirgin, Sung Ceramic Designs, Stockholm, 1970, pl. 53k. Similar shards have been excavated at a number of kiln sites in Shandong, Hebei and Henan provinces, for example, see one from the Museum of History, published in The Ancient Kilns of Henan Province, Taipei, 2002, pl. 255.

Lot 5015. A qingbai cup and stand, Northern Song dynasty (1115-1234); cup d. 10.4 cm; stand d. 14.9 cm. Estimate 200,000 - 400,000 HKD. Lot sold 444,500 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

the cup delicately potted with rounded sides supported on a splayed foot, rising to a hexalobed everted rim, the stand moulded with a central raised ring within a hexalobed rim, resting on a splayed recessed base formed from six lappets, each pierced with a central heart-shaped motif, the cup and stand applied with a transparent blue glaze, the unglazed base of each revealing a white biscuit burnt russet-brown in the firing, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong.
Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Exhibited: TChugoku Toji Meihin Ten Ise Korekushon no Shiho / Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramic Art Exhibition, Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Ishikawa, 2012, cat. no. 25.
Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 14.
Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 17.

Lot 5016. A Cizhou white-glazed vase, meiping, Northern Song dynasty (960-1279); 32.2 cm. Estimate 600,000 - 1,200,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,397,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

gracefully potted with an ovoid tapering body rising from a recessed base to broad rounded shoulders, surmounted by a short waisted neck and everted rim, covered overall with a creamy ivory-white glaze, the footring unglazed revealing the buff stoneware body, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Exhibited: Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 19.
Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 27.

Note: The present lot exemplifies the refined artistry of the Cizhou potting tradition. While earlier examples from northern folk kilns display more pragmatic production methods, this piece reveals a mastery of mature Cizhou ware aesthetics. Its fluid, uninterrupted glaze coverage and exceptionally balanced silhouette distinguish it as a masterpiece from the kiln, far surpassing routine production.

Compare a Cizhou-type white-glazed meiping, Northern Song-Jin dynasty, the Handan Cultural Relics Preservation Institute, though its glaze does not extend to the base, which is illustrated in Complete Collection of Ceramics Unearthed in China, Beijing, vol. 3, 2008, no. 171.

Lot 5017. A rare Longquan celadon 'fish' charger, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368); 37 cm. Estimate 1,200,000 - 2,400,000 HKD. Lot sold 635,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

the rounded sides rising from a short tapered foot to a flat rim, the interior applied with four scaly fishes swimming clockwise, the exterior with a band of lotus petals, covered overall with a bluish-green glaze, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Literature: Christian Boehm, 'A Tea Master's Vision: Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection', Arts of Asia, July-August 2018, fig. 19.

Exhibited: Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 29.
Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 36.

Note: This type of Longquan ware with fish appliqués at the centre of the dish most commonly features paired fish designs, while examples with four fish are exceptionally rare. Compare a late Yuan to early Ming dynasty dish with four fish in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Longquan of the World: Longquan Celadon and Globalization, Beijing, 2019, cat. no. 116; another illustrated in Julian Thompson, 'Chinese Celadons', Arts of Asia, November-December 1993, p. 65, fig. 4 right, sold in these rooms, 5th November 1996, lot 604; and a third example included in the exhibition Chinese Celadons and Other Related Wares in Southeast Asia, Southeast Asian Ceramics Society, Singapore, 1979, cat. no. 123, pl. 98. Compare also a damaged dish formerly in the Ehime Museum of Art collection, also decorated with four fish, which was later sold at Christie's New York, 23rd September 2022, lot 903.

Lot 5018. A painted Cizhou 'floral' jar, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); h. 14.3 cm. Estimate 100,000 - 200,000 HKD. Lot sold 406,100 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

sturdily potted with deep rounded sides rising from a splayed foot, the exterior freely and superbly painted in dark brown with three flower sprays alternating with butterflies, all against a creamy-white slip and a transparent glaze stopping neatly above the foot revealing the stoneware body.

Provenance: Collection of Todoroki Takashi (1939-2016).
Watanabe & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Literature: Sekai Toji Zenshu [Ceramic art of the world], vol. 10: So Ryo [Song and Liao], Tokyo, 1955, no. 116.
Gakuji Hasebe, Toki Zenshu [The Complete Works of Ceramics], vol. 13: So no Jishu You [Song dynasty Cizhou wares], Tokyo, 1958, pl. 35 (bottom).
Tosetsu / A Monthly Journal Published by The Japan Ceramic Society, vol. 121, April 1963, p. 92.
Tsugio Mikami, Sekai Toji Zenshu [Ceramic Art of the World], vol. 13: Ryo Gin Ken [Liao, Chin and Yuan Dynasties], Tokyo, 1981, no. 244.

Exhibited: Todoroki Collection: Chinese Ceramics, Watanabe & Co., Ltd, Tokyo, 2017, cat. no. 9.

Note: Freely painted with an attractive design of feather-like leaves, this jar is characteristic of wares produced at the Cizhou type kilns in Ci County, Hebei province. A layer of white slip was applied over the body, which was then painted with dark brown pigments in rapid brushstrokes before being enhanced by a coat of clear glaze. Such vividly contrasting brown-and-white design is reminiscent of calligraphy and ink paintings and thus vessels such as the present lot would have been highly sought after by the literati during the Song dynasty.

Jars of this type with similar design are found in prominent collections, including one in the collections of British Museum, London (inventory no. 1936,1012.162), one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inventory no. 1991.253.20), and another one from the collection of Sir Alan and Lady Barlow, illustrated in Jan Wirgin, Sung Ceramic Designs, London, 1979, pl. 45c.

Lot 5019. A Longquan celadon yi-form spouted bowl, Yuan-early Ming dynasty (1279-1644); w. 16.5 cm. Estimate 200,000 - 400,000 HKD. Lot sold 381,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

potted with rounded sides and set with a curved channelled spout on one end, the exterior encircled by a lappet band, covered overall save for an unglazed reddish-burnt ring on the base with an olive-green glaze, Japanese double wood box.

Provenance: Collection of Baron Fujita Denzaburo (1841-1912), Osaka.
Osaka Bijutsu Club, Osaka, 10th May 1929, lot 303, illustrated in Fujita Danshaku ke Zohin Nyusatsu Mokuroku [Auction catalogue of the Baron Fujita family collection].
Kitayama Bijutsuten, Tokyo.

Exhibited: Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 28.
Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 35.
Kanazawa Bijutsu Club Hyakushunen Kinen Tokubetsu Ten Bi no Chikara Chaji no Myo [Kanazawa Art Club 100th Anniversary: Exquisitness of Tea Ceremony], Kanazawa Nakamura Memorial Museum, 2018, cat. no. 77.

Note: Compare two related undecorated examples: one exhibited in China Without Dragons: Rare Pieces from Oriental Ceramic Society Members, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 2016, cat. no. 94; the other handled by Yamanaka & Co. Ltd, and sold in our New York rooms, 18th March 2021, lot 241. Baron Fujita Denzaburo (1841-1912) was an eminent Meiji-period entrepreneur, industrialist and master of tea ceremony had assembled a prominent collection of tea wares and many other exceptional East Asian works of art.

Lot 5020. A pair of qingbai 'lotus' bowls and covers, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); each bowl d. 12.7 cm; covers d. 13.6 and 14 cm. Estimate 300,000 - 600,000 HKD. Lot sold 406,400 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

each potted with deep rounded sides resting on a short foot, the exterior carved with overlapping lotus petals, the domed covers similarly decorated and applied with an unglazed knob in the shape of a sprig, covered overall with a transparent blue-tinged transparent glaze, metal-bound rims, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Sotheby's London, 7th December 1995, lot 99.
Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo, inv. nos 8520 and 8521.

Exhibited: An Exhibition of Song Ceramics, Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo, 2018, cat. no. 42.

Lot 5021. An heirloom 'haikatsugi tenmoku' tea bowl, Southern Song-Yuan dynasty (1127-1368); cup d. 12.2 cm; lacquer stand w. 15.5 cm. Estimate 500,000 - 1,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 3,810,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

well potted with deep conical sides rising from a short foot to a rim indented by a shallow groove, unctuously applied with a lustrous black glaze, one side of the exterior accentuated with a crescent-shaped silvery transformation created by two overlapping layers of glaze, the glaze stopping neatly above the foot revealing the dark brown body, metal-bound rim, together with a black lacquer cup stand inscribed with Xingyang yongxing (滎陽永興) inside the stem, making reference to Xingyang, a city located in Henan, accompanied by Japanese wood boxes inscribed by Kobori Enshū (1579-1647), a Japanese aristocrat, tea master and artistic polymath during the early Edo period.

Provenance: Collection of Kobori Enshu (1579-1647).
Collection of the Maeda family, Kaga, Ishikawa.
Auction of the Maeda Family Collection, Kanazawa, 1869.
Matsuoka Tadayoshi (b. 1887), Kanazawa.
Watanabe & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Literature: Yoshio Takahashi, Taisho Meiki-Kan [Taisho Catalogue of Prized Tea Utensils], vol. 6, Tokyo, 1925, p. 61.
Nagomi [A monthly magazine by Tankosha], Tankosha, Tokyo, May 2018, p. 27.
Christian Boehm, 'A Tea Master's Vision: Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection', Arts of Asia, July-August 2018, fig. 11.

Exhibited: Shika Meisai: Ise Korekushon no Meito / Imperial Colors: Peerless Chinese Porcelains from the Ise Collection, Gotoh Museum, Tokyo, 2015, cat. no. 2-14.
Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 18.
Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 24.

Note: The current bowl, with an ash-like silvery glaze draped over its dark stoneware body, belongs to a group of bowls known as haikatsugi tenmoku (ash-covered). Far from what one may infer from the term, however, the iconic iridescent ‘ash-covered’ glaze of such bowls is due to the uneven fires in the kilns.

Haikatsugi tenmoku bowls are generally attributed to the Chayang kilns in Nanping city, Fujian Province (see Hsieh Ming-Liang, ‘Guanyu Huibei Chawan’ [On Haikatsugi Tea Bowls], Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art, vol. 454, January 2021, pp. 62-77.) While it has been proposed by some scholars that two different glazes were applied before the firing of these bowls, Hsieh argues that craftsmen merely applied two layers of the same glaze before the firing, with the first application being thinner.

Similar extant pieces of Haikatsugi tenmoku, though remarkably rare, include the ‘Yuhi Tenmoku’ from the Wakashu Sakai family collection, the ‘Niji Tenmoku’ at The Agency for Cultural Affairs, and the ‘Akiba’ preserved at the MOA Museum of Art, Atami, respectively illustrated in Guanyu huibei chawan [On haikatsugi tea bowls], nos 5 and 6, as well as Karamono Tenmoku: Tenmoku Excavated from Jian Kiln in Fujian Province and Tenmoku from Japan: Special Exhibition, Tokyo, 1994, cat. no. 23. Compare also a collection of Chayang ware tea bowls preserved at the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, such as one preserved in Japan until 1911 when Charles Lang Freer purchased it from Shinsuke Hayashi before gifting it to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1920, accession no. F1911.355.

Lot 5022. An exceptionally rare and important heirloom Guan lobed dish, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); 19.2 cm. Estimate 25,000,000 - 50,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 55,885,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

elegantly potted with wide flaring sides rising at an angle from a low tapered foot, the rim gracefully divided into six lobes, the body unctuously enveloped in a thick lustrous bluish-celadon glaze thinning at the rim, the glaze suffused with a network of attractive golden-beige crackles, save for the neatly trimmed footring unglazed revealing the dark brown body, Japanese double wood box.

Provenance: Collection of Sir Harry M. Garner (1891-1977).
Bluett & Sons Ltd, London.
Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo, acquired from the above on 14th June 1978.
A Japanese private collection.
Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Literature: Ju and Kuan Wares’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 27, 1951-53, pl. 3, no. 36 (with metal rim).
Harry M. Garner, ‘Ju and Kuan Wares of the Sung Dynasty’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. 94, no. 597, December 1952, pp. 348-53, pl. 63.
G.St.G.M. Gompertz, Chinese Celadon Wares, London, 1958, pl. 56B (with metal rim).
‘The Arts of the Sung Dynasty’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 32, 1959-60, pl. 61, no. 163 (with metal rim).
‘The Ceramic Art of China’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 38, 1969-71, pl. 71, no. 107 (with metal rim).
Chugoku Toji. Ise Korekushon / Chinese Ceramics. The Ise Collection, Tokyo, 2012, pp. 38-39.
Nagomi [A Monthly Magazine by Tankosha], Tankosha, Tokyo, May 2018, p. 13.
Christian Boehm, 'A Tea Master's Vision: Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection', Arts of Asia, July-August 2018, fig. 15.
Tosetsu [A Monthly Journal Published by The Japan Ceramic Society], vol. 803, March 2020, pl. 3.

Exhibited: Ju and Kuan Wares, The Oriental Ceramic Society at Bluett’s, London, 1952, cat. no. 36, illustrated pl. 3 (with metal rim).
The Arts of the Sung Dynasty, The Oriental Ceramic Society at the Arts Council Galleries, London, 1960, cat. no. 163 (with metal rim).
The Ceramic Art of China, The Oriental Ceramic Society at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 1971, cat. no. 107, illustrated pl. 25 (with metal rim).
On loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, from 1976 to 1977.
Chugoku Toji Meihin Ten Ise Korekushon no Shiho / Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramic Art Exhibition, Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Ishikawa, 2012, cat. no. 36.
Seiji no Ima –Uketugareta Waza to bi Nan So Kara Gendai Made / Celadon Now: Techniques and Beauty Handed Down from Southern Song to Today, Tokyo, 2014, cat. no. 1 - 03.
Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 23.
Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 30.

The Garner Guan Ware Dish
Regina Krahl

Song society was in many respects far ahead of its times, and it certainly was in terms of taste. In centuries past, the rich and powerful the world over tended to surround themselves with unmistakable luxuries: items clearly exhibiting the expensive materials and the intense amount of labour required to create them. Emperor Huizong (r. 1100–1126), the last great emperor of the Northern Song period (960–1127), who abdicated just a year before the Jurchen conquered the Song capital, followed a different trend that was already prevalent among the literati at the time. Works of art characterized by a reduction to simplicity, naturalness, spontaneity and understated refinement became the trademark of Song imperial taste. Patricia Buckley Ebrey tells us that Emperor Huizong complained that his predecessor’s buildings looked “as gaudy as jewelry” and insisted himself on architecture with unpainted beams and monochrome wall paintings (Accumulating Culture. The Collections of Emperor Huizong, Seattle, 2008, pp. 344f.). For any emperor to choose a modest ceramic vessel over a glitzy item made up of gold and jewels required an independent mind. It was a sophisticated approach, that contradicted the prevalent concept of what constitutes privilege.

“Works of art characterized by a reduction to simplicity, naturalness, spontaneity and understated refinement became the trademark of Song imperial taste.”

Traditionally, the court had obtained its ceramics as tribute pieces, sent from the best kilns in the empire. This development, which had started in the Tang dynasty (618–907), culminated towards the end of the Northern Song, when the plain green Ru wares of Baofeng in Henan with their simple shapes and lack of decoration became the most favoured ceramics at court; but this choice was of short duration. When the imperial house had to relocate to the south, access to these wares was suddenly cut off.

The Southern Song period (1127–1279) began when the court moved to Hangzhou in Zhejiang, although this new location was not immediately accepted as the new capital, but first considered as only a temporary residence. Once it became clear, however, that the northern part of their erstwhile empire would remain under the rule of the Jin dynasty (1115–1234) for the foreseeable future, the household department had to find new ways to supply the court with all it wished for and needed. For ceramics, it opted for setting up and controlling its own kilns, right in Hangzhou, to fill the void. As everything in Hangzhou was conceived as a replica of the former capital Bianjing (modern Kaifeng in Henan), it was only natural that the official (‘guan’) kilns would endeavour to reproduce the court’s former favourite ware, Ru.

"Born out of necessity, Hangzhou guan ware became one of China’s most emblematic and beloved ceramic wares. Its fame and aura are unsurpassed and it is often ranked even higher than Ru, because it is altogether more endearing."

Born out of necessity, Hangzhou guan ware became one of China’s most emblematic and beloved ceramic wares. Its fame and aura are unsurpassed and it is often ranked even higher than Ru, because it is altogether more endearing. The different raw materials, working methods and artisans of the south produced an outcome very different from the northern Ru ware. Shapes are less severe; the satisfactory, lush coating of glaze, applied in multiple layers, that envelops guan pieces softly modulates the surface and mellows all angles and edges. Its brownish-black body lends depth to the tone of the glaze, even though it is directly noticeable only at the rim, where the glaze adheres in a thinner, more translucent layer. It can also make the crackle appear darker and more prominent. To recognize the attraction of the chance outcome of a crackle pattern, which basically represented a flaw arising during the cooling process after firing, was one of the most remarkable leaps in Song connoisseurs’ conception of beauty. It is a combination of these features that can turn a basically modest ceramic vessel into a work of art.

To fully appreciate this, one only needs to compare one of the originals to any of their innumerable imitations. Song guan ware represents probably China’s most copied type of ceramics, but its grandeur and nobility were never equalled. It was imitated already by contemporary kilns at Longquan further south in the same province, Zhejiang, and continued to provide models particularly for potters at the Jingdezhen kilns of Jiangxi, right until modern times. Neither the former, with their stronger green glazes on a light-coloured clay, nor the latter, with their hard-white porcelain body and sparkling, translucent glazes were well suited to reproduce the subtlety of the soft-toned, hazy greenish glazes that cover the dark ceramic body of the originals. The magic of Song guan ware needs to be experienced in person; it is difficult to transmit it with words and impossible to do it full justice through photographs.

"What is perhaps most surprising about Song guan ware is that in spite of its fame and glory, and the unbroken admiration it enjoyed for almost nine hundred years, still very little is known about its manufacture."
 

The seemingly simply shape of this dish is ingenious in its design. Six small cut-out notches in the rim are sufficient to create an enchanting flower shape; and the angled sides, raised on a very narrow foot, elevate this blossom, as if it was floating slightly above ground. This form is not encountered among Ru wares, but predecessors can be found among the related Zhanggongxiang wares, made close by in Ruzhou, Henan, which, however, are known almost only from kiln wasters; four dishes of similar form, three of them glazed but fragmentary and the fourth, biscuit-fired and still unglazed, have been excavated from the kiln site and are published in Ruyao yu Zhanggongxiangyao chutu ciqi/Ceramic Art Unearthed from the Ru Kiln Site and Zhanggongxiang Kiln Site, Beijing, 2009, pp. 111-14.

What is perhaps most surprising about Song guan ware is that in spite of its fame and glory, and the unbroken admiration it enjoyed for almost nine hundred years, still very little is known about its manufacture. Two kiln sites producing ceramics that fit our notion of Southern Song guan ware have been discovered in Hangzhou and two terms are found in the classical literature when discussing the Song court’s ceramic workshops. This has led to a quick association of the terms with the sites, one supposedly of higher, the other of lesser quality. Xiuneisi, the name of the prestigious Palace Maintenance Office in charge of court buildings and furnishings has been fitted to the more prolific Laohudong kiln site, thus deemed the grander location; Jiaotanxia, the more humble name of a locality in Hangzhou, has been matched with the Wuguishan site and declared the lesser of the two. This interpretation and grading have since been questioned by several scholars, since Laohudong continued to produce into the Yuan without obvious interruption (Du Zhengxian, ed., Hangzhou Laohudong yaozhi ciqi jingxuan [Selection of porcelains from the Laohudong kiln sites in Hangzhou], Beijing, 2002); and Wuguishan, discovered in 1930 by Japanese explorers, has yielded fragments of the highest order, which plainly contradict its qualification as a secondary site (‘Yonaiyama tōhen/Yonaiyama Shards’, and ‘Yonaiyama tōhen II/Yonaiyama Shards II’, The Bulletin of the Chinese Ceramic Study Association of Tokiwayama Bunko Foundation, vols 2 and 4, Tokyo, 2009 and 2011).

"What characterizes guan ware in contrast to Ru, is the enormous variation between comparable examples [...] The variations suggest that all these dishes were individually shaped and glazed rather than having been produced in series, at a time when the kilns were still in a phase of exploration."
 

Many of the finest guan pieces, including the present dish, cannot obviously be attributed to either find site, which suggests that not all official production sites have been located. The best guan ware fragments so far discovered in Hangzhou come from yet another place, situated on the grounds of a modern factory and therefore not systematically excavated. That site does not appear to represent a manufacturing site, however, but may have been used as a temporary storage place by the court (Shu Pei Chi, ed., Chen Changwei jinian lunwen ji/Studies in Memory of Chen Chang-wei, vol. 4, Taipei, 2009, pp. 150-72).

What characterizes guan ware in contrast to Ru, is the enormous variation between comparable examples. This is not surprising, since the official Hangzhou potters were confronted with a sudden demand to create imperial ceramics from scratch and clearly had to experiment, while the Ru potters had a long tradition of ceramic making before their wares reached the reliable level deemed necessary for court approval. The number of dishes equalling the present piece in quality and approximate size is very small; and while the following are all very similar, with crackled greenish glazes, six-lobed, with angled sides, with a small foot, on which they were placed in the kiln, without the support of spurs, they all vary slightly in glaze tone and crackle pattern, in overall diameter, in the size of their foot and in the depth of their sides, above the angle. The variations suggest that all these dishes were individually shaped and glazed rather than having been produced in series, at a time when the kilns were still in a phase of exploration.

Five such dishes, ranging in size from 18.7 cm to 23 cm, are in the Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the exhibitions Gui si chenxing. Qing gong chuanshi 12 zhi 14 shiji qingci tezhan/Precious as the Morning Star. 12th-14th Century Celadons in the Qing Court Collection, Palace Museum, Taipei, 2016, nos II-23 – II-26; and Song guanyao tezhan/Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Sung Dynasty Kuan Ware, Palace Museum, Taipei, 1989, nos 98-102 (fig. 1); two of them are incised on the base with poems by the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736–1795).

fig. 1. Guan lobed dish, Southern Song dynasty, Palace Museum, Taipei, CC BY 4.0 @ www.npm.gov.tw
 

A dish with a metal-bound rim (21.9 cm), is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (no. 24.172.1)(fig. 2); and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, bought a second dish from the collection of Sir Harry Garner (no. C.6-1978) (18 cm), but that one broken, which beautifully displays its thin black body under the glaze (fig. 3); both these dishes are illustrated in Basil Gray, Sung Porcelain and Stoneware, London, 1984, pls 104 and 103; the Palace Museum, Beijing, holds a related dish re-assembled from sherds, that was incised with a palace name on the base after firing (17.8 cm), published in Feng Xiaoqi, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang Zhongguo gudai yaozhi biaoben. Zhejiang/The Specimens of Ancient Chinese Kilns in the Collection of the Palace Museum. Zhejiang, Beijing, 2015, vol. 1, p. 209 (fig. 4), next to base sherds of dishes from the Jiaotan guan kiln site, pls 115 and 116.

fig. 2 Guan lobed dish, Southern Song dynasty, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Fletcher Fund, 1924, object no. 24.172.1

fig. 3 Guan lobed dish, Southern Song dynasty © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

fig. 4 Guan lobed dish, Southern Song dynasty, After Feng Xiaoqi, ed., The Specimens of Ancient Chinese Kilns in the Collection of the Palace Museum, vol. 1: Zhejiang, Beijing, 2015, p. 209.

Lot 5023. A Yue celadon ewer, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 26.5 cm. Estimate 300,000 - 600,000 HKD. Lot sold 88,900 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

potted with an ovoid body rising from a splayed foot to an angled shoulder, surmounted by a waisted neck and broad angular mouth, set with a curved spout opposite a double-strand handle, the body divided into six panels by vertical raised double ribs, applied at the shoulder with two double-strand loops, covered overall with an olive-green glaze, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: An old Japanese collection.
Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Exhibited: An Exhibition of Song Ceramics, Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo, 2018, cat. no. 50.

Lot 5024. A Junyao blue-glazed dish, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 19 cm. Estimate 260,000 - 500,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,651,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

potted with shallow rounded sides rising from a short foot to a flat everted rim, covered overall save for the footring with a milky-blue glaze, the glaze thinning to a mushroom tone at the rim, the base with five spur marks, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Acquired from the above in 2015.

Literature: Tosetsu [A Monthly Journal Published by The Japan Ceramic Society], vol. 210, September 1970, n.pag.
Mayuyama: Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 394.
Osaka Municipal Museum of Art ed., So Gen no Bijutsu (Arts in Song and Yuan dynasties), Tokyo, 1980, pl. 111.

Exhibited: So Gen no Bijutsu [Art of the Song and Yuan Dynasties], vol. 4, Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Osaka, 1978, cat. no. 1-85.
Song Ceramics, Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo, 2014, cat. no. 17.

Note: First documented as early as 1970 in Tosetsu, this dish was described by Gakuji Hasebe as a rare, beautiful and truly excellent piece of Jun ware, with the foot carefully finished and a glaze of heavenly blue, flawlessly fired to achieve a beautiful, glossy finish.

The shallow and sturdy form of this dish, with a wide everted rim, represents a classic shape of Jun ware produced at kilns in Henan province. One of the 'Five Classic Wares' of the Song dynasty, these wares are known for their ravishing blue glazes, which were not achieved from pigment but from an optical illusion where minute spherules of glass in the glaze scattered blue light. Unlike the other classic wares of the Song dynasty, the porous and thick body of Jun ware was best suited for simple forms, such as this charming dish.

Two slightly smaller dishes in the collection of the Beijing Palace Museum are illustrated in Selection of Jun Ware. the Palace Museum's Collection and Archaeological Excavation, Beijing, 2013, pls 18 and 19; two slightly larger dishes were sold in our London rooms, the first from the collection of Edward T. Chow, published in Basil Gray, Early Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1952, pl. 84, sold on 16th December 1980, lot 272, and the second, 10th December 1991, lot 133. See also a dish of similar size from the Tianminlou Collection, sold in these rooms, 30th May 2019, lot 12; and another from the Hirano Kotoken Collection, sold in these rooms, 8th April 2023, lot 3510.

Compare also two dishes that were fired on five spurs, in the Taipei Palace Museum, illustrated in A Panorama of Ceramics in the Collection of the Palace Museum: Chun Ware, Taipei, 1999, pls 54 and 55; a dish in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl. 495; and a dish from the Sir Percival David Collection, now in the British Museum, London, published in Illustrated Catalogue of Ru, Guan, Jun, Guangdong and Yixing Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1999, pl. A66.

Lot 5025. A carved Yaozhou celadon tripod incense burner, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234); w. 14.3 cm. Estimate 200,000 - 400,000 HKD. Lot sold 95,250 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

of compressed globular body decorated with foliate scrolls, impressed with a keyfret border encircling the constricted neck below the flat rim with two handles, all supported on three splayed legs issuing from animal masks, the exterior and the inner rim covered overall save for the feet with a transparent olive-green glaze, Japanese double wood box.

Provenance: Watanabe & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Exhibited: To So Meito Ten [Exhibition of Tang-Song Ceramics], Japan Ceramic Society, Tokyo, 1964, cat. no. 100.
Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 29.

Lot 5026. A small Junyao blue-glazed tripod incense burner, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234); d. 10.1 cm. Estimate 400,000 - 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,778,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

the compressed globular body resting on three cabriole legs, surmounted by a constricted straight neck and galleried rim, covered overall with a milky sky-blue glaze, the glaze thinning to a pale mushroom tone at the edges and extremities and stopping short of the tips of the legs, Japanese double wood box.

Provenance: Collection of Samuel T. Peters (1859-1943) (label).
Collection of Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987).
Collection of Else Sackler (1913-2000), and thence by descent.
Christie's New York, 17th March 2017, lot 1148.
Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Exhibited: Columbia University Exhibition, Columbia University, New York, 1965.
3500 Years of Chinese Art: Ceramics from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1987.
Soji Shinpi no Yakimono [Song Ceramics, Utensils of Sublime Beauty], Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, 2018, cat. no. 54.
An Exhibition of Song Ceramics, Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo, 2018, cat. no. 20.

Lot 5027. An extremely rare 'beishoku' guan vase, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); 22.3 cm. Estimate 8,000,000 - 16,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 24,775,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

masterfully potted with a compressed globular body supported on a tall straight foot, gracefully rising to a cylindrical neck and a slightly everted rim, covered overall with an unctuous beige glaze intricately suffused with russet-brown crackles, the footring unglazed revealing the buff-coloured body, Japanese double wood box.

Provenance: Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.
Collection of Tsuneichi Inoue (1906-1965).
Sotheby's London, 13th May 2015, lot 32.
Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Literature:Seiichi Okuda, Sakutaro Tanaka, Fukosai Hirota, Haruzo Hayashi, eds, Chugoku no Toji [Chinese Ceramics], Tokyo, 1955, pl. 180.
Fujio Koyama et al., eds, Sekai Toji Zenshu / Ceramic Art of the World, vol. 10: Sung and Liao dynasties, Tokyo, 1955, pl. 40.
Fujio Koyama, Toki Zenshu. To So no Seiji [The Complete Works of Ceramics: Celadon of Tang to Song Dynasty], Tokyo, 1960, pl. 48.
Mayuyama: Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 461.
Gakuji Hasebe, Sekai toji zenshu / Ceramic Art of the World, vol. 12: Song, Tokyo, 1977, pl. 69.
Fujio Koyama, Toji Taikei. Seiji [A Survey of Ceramics Series], vol. 36: Celadon, Tokyo, 1978, pl. 17.
The Osaka Municipal Art Museum, ed., So Gen no Bijutsu [Arts of the Song and Yuan Periods], Osaka, 1980, pl. 5.
The Tokugawa Art Museum, The Nezu Museum, eds, Hanaike [Hanaike: flower vases in the vogue of zashiki-display], Tokyo, 1982, pl. 8.
'Beishoku Seiji / Beishoku Celadon', The Bulletin of the Chinese Ceramic Study Association of Tokiwayama Bunko Foundation, vol. 1, Tokyo, 2008, pl. 1b, 2 right, 3, and fig. 1 right.
Christian Boehm, 'A Tea Master's Vision: Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection', Arts of Asia, July-August 2018, fig. 16.

Exhibited: So Ji Meihin Ten [Exhibition of Sung Ceramics Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Japan Ceramic Society], Tokyo, 1955, cat. no. 33.
So, Korai, Momoyama ki Toji Hyakusen Ten [Selected One Hundred Ceramics of Song, Goryeo and Momoyama Dynasty], Tokyo, 1960, cat. no. 24.
Chugoku So Gen Bijutsu ten / Chinese Art of the Sung and Yuan Periods, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 1961, cat. no. 191.
Seiji Meihin Ten [Exhibition of the Great Works of Celadon], Japan Ceramic Society, Tokyo, 1963, cat. no. 5.
To So Meito Ten [Exhibition of Tang Song Ceramics], Japan Ceramic Society, Tokyo, 1964, cat. no. 87.
Chugoku Toji Meiho Ten [Exhibition of the Great Works of Chinese Ceramics], Gotoh Museum, Tokyo, 1966.
So Gen no Bijutsu [The Art of Song and Yuan], Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Osaka, 1978, cat. no. 1-18.
Hanaike [Hanaike: flower vases in the vogue of zashiki-display], Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya, 1982, cat. no. 8.
So Ji – Shinpin to Yobareta Yakimono [Song Ceramics], Tobu Museum of Art, Tokyo, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, Hagi Uragami Museum, Hagi, 1999, cat. no. 64.
Chugoku Toji bi wo Miru Kokoro [Chinese Ceramics, Enlightening through Beauty], Sen-oku Hakuko Kan Bunkan, Tokyo, 2006, cat. no. 32.
Nan So no Seiji Sora wo Utsusu Utsuwa [Heavenly Blue: Southern Song Celadons], Nezu Museum, Tokyo, 2010, cat. no. 59.
Seiji no Ima –Uketugareta Waza to bi Nan So Kara Gendai Made [Celadon Now: Techniques and Beauty Handed Down from Southern Song to Today], Tokyo, 2014, cat. no. 1-02.
Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cover and cat. no. 24.
Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 31.

Note: Smooth and sensuous to the touch, suffused with an enchanting network of crackles, the present vase is an extremely rare and important example of coveted Beishoku (‘rice coloured’) guan. While understated when viewed from a distance, the vase comes alive in one’s hand. Running one’s fingers along its gentle curves and peering deeply at its surface, one begins to get a true sense of the piece’s deep complexity.

From its rich golden-amber tone to its exquisite ‘ice flake’ crackles, the beauty of the present vase is one of enchanting coincidence. Formed by the alchemy and chaos of the dragon kilns almost a millennium ago, this warm unctuous glaze is the result of inadvertent oxidisation in the typically reducing kiln environments of Hangzhou. Guan wares were usually fired in reduction with a severely limited supply of oxygen causing metallic (mostly iron) oxides in the glaze to shed their oxygen ions and transform in colour to a range of greens and blues. The present vase, in contrast, displays the rich orange tones of iron oxides when fully (or at least partly) fired with plentiful oxygen. Whether produced intentionally as a rare variation or by happenstance due to improper sealing of the kiln, the present vase is an extraordinary example of unreduced guan, of which extant examples are outstandingly scarce.

In Japan, where many Song ceramics have arrived ever since the Song dynasty, the present glaze colour has been highly revered for decades, and singled out under the moniker beishoku after the yellowish colour of raw, unhulled rice grains. The term beishoku was coined by the collector-connoisseur Tsuneo Yonaiyama, consul of Hangzhou in the 1950s, who collected many sherds of this type from the Jiaotanxia kiln site. In a recent comprehensive monograph of the subject, Senior Curator Sarah Sato discusses the present vase in extensive detail and deems the piece to have been “produced by design with precise color control” by virtue of its perfect form and even yellow glaze; see Sarah Sato, ‘Beishoku Celadon Ware of the Southern Song Guan-yao’, Beishoku seiji / Beishoku Celadon, The Bulletin of the Chinese Ceramic Study Association of Tokiwayama Bunko Foundation, vol. 1, Tokyo, 2008, pp 35-6 and 121-2. Sato also identifies three other beishoku guan pieces as companions to the present piece: a wide-rimmed basin; a small fluted cup; and a companion vase of the same form as the present preserved in the Tokiwayama Bunko, Kamakura (accession no. 21016), illustrated in Heavenly Blue: Southern Song Celadons, Nezu Museum, 2010, cat. no. 58, with a touch of green on one side, revealing the direct connection with more familiar green-ish guan wares (fig. 1).

fig. 1. Beishoku guan vase, Southern Song dynasty, Tokiwayama Bunko Foundation, Photo provided by Tokyo National Museum, Image: TNM Image Archives.

While examples of beishoku guan appear to have been largely omitted from the imperial collections of the Qing court assembled during the Qianlong era (1735-1795), pieces of this colouration, splendour and complex crackle have a long and established history in elite Chinese collections. Compare, for example, a Kangxi period vase of related form and crackled sand-coloured glaze from the Qing Court collection in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 223. Indeed, while green-blue celadons are generally considered to be the most important wares of the Song dynasty, scholar Hasebe Gakuji points out that the most highly prized ceramics of the preceding Tang dynasty (618-907) – the mise (secret colour) wares from the Yue kilns of Zhejiang – frequently featured bright golden tones. Compare, for example, one bowl included in the imperial donations to the Famen Temple outside Xi’an, with an inlaid lacquer coating on the outside and a burnt-yellow Yue glaze on the interior, of very much the same tone as the present vase (fig. 2); see Hasebe Gakuji, ‘Reconsideration of the Celadon Known as “Secret Colored”’, Beishoku seiji, op. cit., pp. 78-80 and 91-3, and p. 76, fig. 16c top.

fig. 2. Mise celadon silver and gilt-decorated 'bird and floral medallion' bowl, Tang dynasty, After: Treasures of Famen Temple, p. 284

Perhaps an even stronger case for the enduring allure of golden wares in China and the importance of the present vase can be made in comparing guan ware to jade. The beauty of the various celadon glaze tones achieved by kilns in north and south China has always been judged by comparison with the endless variety of tones of nephrite. In his poems praising guan ware, for example, the Qianlong Emperor made frequent reference to jade as its closest rival. Bright and tactile, pristine yet full of crackles and imperfections, these pieces provide the perfect cypher through which to understand the present vase. Indeed, while the finest jades of the Ming and Qing dynasties tend to be of more pale celadon tone, in the Song dynasty, rare yellow jade – very close in its overall aspect to the glaze of the present vase – appears to have been particularly appreciated and coveted. Thus, this extraordinary colour – in jade and ceramic alike – would have been very familiar to a connoisseur of the period and the present vase’s soft patina after centuries of treasured ownership well explained.

Guan (‘official’) wares of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) are among the most coveted of all Song ceramics and are already praised and recorded in contemporaneous texts of the Southern Song period. Following the fall of the Northern Song dynasty at Bianliang (Kaifeng) to the Jin army in 1127, the court moved south of the Huai River and reestablished themselves in Lin’an (Hangzhou). Divorced from their imperial kilns in the north, Ye Zhi’s Tanzhai biheng (Notes from the Tranquil Study, ca. 1211) records how the Xiuneisi, Palace Maintenance Office, set up a new kiln near the southern capital to produce exceptional wares modelled on northern prototypes; most likely the official celadon wares of the Ru kilns, Henan. Somewhat later in the reign, Ye Zhi also notes the foundation of another kiln in Hangzhou – described as Jiaotanxia (‘below the suburban altar’) – producing similar but generally lesser wares.

The basic premise of these records now appears to be supported by archaeological research. To date, two distinct kiln sites have been explored in Hangzhou: one at Wuguishan (excavated 1984-86), south of the former Imperial city, and the other at Laohudong (1998-2001) on a site within the city itself. Because of their locations and the different qualities of the sherds recovered, the Wuguishan site has generally been interpreted as the (lesser) Jiaotanxia kiln, while Laohudong site is associated with the more esteemed Xiuneisi manufactory. However, with broad variation in quality and form at both kiln sites, it remains very difficult to attribute extant examples of guan ware to a specific location.

That said, some features clearly distinguish guan wares from their contemporaries – setting them apart as among the finest and most desirable pieces ever produced in China. From the very earliest Ming dynasty scholarship, guan wares were already distinguished from their counterparts by their exceptional glazes and striking crackle. While guan wares seem to have first been introduced in direct imitation of Ru wares, before long, the potters of Hangzhou were producing extraordinary wares never before seen in China. Combining thin iron-rich clay bodies with thick lime glazes – sometimes even applied in several layers – the guan potters produced enchanting glaze effects including ice-like crackles formed in the glaze’s rapid cooling. Guan glazes are attested in a wide range of tones – from opaque milky-grey over watery greens to yellowish tones – while the crackle can vary from distinct surface lines (often enhanced through staining) to a web of translucent threads below the surface resembling stacked flakes of ice; for a more detailed chemical breakdown, see Nigel Wood, Chinese Glazes, London, 1999, pp 81-87.

Beyond the aforementioned Tokiwayama Bunko example, other extant vases of this form appear to be exceedingly rare, let alone with beishoku colouration. With its broad base and ever so slightly everted lip, which display the extraordinary feeling for proportions that makes Song ceramics so attractive even to today’s contemporary designers, this vase must be considered one of the masterpieces of Song potting. Compare a very similar vase from the Eumorfopoulos collection, now in the British Museum, London (accession no. 1936,1012.66), fired in reduction to a more typical blue-green (fig. 3), included in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935, cat. no. 892; and sherds of grey-green tone from a vase of very similar form and size uncovered from the Xiuneisi kiln site in Ma Yizhao, ed., Study on Southern Song Xiuneisi Imperial Kilns Hangzhou, Hangzhou, 2006, pl. 106 (fig. 4).

fig. 3. Beishoku guan vase, Southern Song dynasty, from the Eumorfopoulos collection, British Museum, London (accession no. 1936,1012.66) © The Trustees of the British Museum.

fig. 4. Vase recovered from the Xiuneisi kiln site, After: Ma Yizhao, ed., Study on Southern Song Xiuneisi Imperial Kilns Hangzhou, Hangzhou, 2006, pl. 106.

Handled by the Japan’s greatest collectors and dealers from the past century – Mayuyama Ryūsendō, Tsuneichi Inoue and now Hikonobu Ise – and included in almost every major Japanese exhibition of Song ceramics since the 1950s, the present vase is a testament to the exacting eye and aesthetic sensibilities of Japanese connoisseurs – an extraordinary treasure emerging like jade from the flames of Hangzhou.

Lot 5028. A Junyao purple-glazed dish, Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234); 16.7 cm. Estimate 200,000 - 400,000 HKD. Lot sold 203,200 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

potted with shallow sides rising from a neatly cut footring to an everted rim, applied overall with a bluish-lavender glaze draining to a mushroom tone around the extremities and stopping around the foot, the interior further decorated with a single purple splash, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Watanabe & Co., Ltd, Tokyo

Lot 5029. A moulded Ding-type 'phoenix' bowl, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 18.5 cm. Estimate 40,000 - 60,000 HKD. Lot sold 60,900 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

with rounded conical sides resting on a short foot, crisply moulded to the interior with two phoenixes soaring through dense peony foliage, covered overall save for the rim with a transparent creamy-white glaze, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo

Lot 5030. A large carved Yaozhou celadon 'peony' bowl, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 24 cm. Estimate 300,000 - 600,000 HKD. Lot sold 355,900 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

of conical form supported on a straight foot, the interior finely carved with a peony spray wreathed in dense foliage, the exterior boldly and sketchily incised with a petal design, covered overall with an olive-green glaze pooling to a deeper colour in the recesses, the petals and leaves accentuated with combed details, Japanese double wood box.

Provenance: Inoue Ryukodo, Osaka.

Literature: Chugoku Toji. Ise Korekushon / Chinese Ceramics. The Ise Collection, Tokyo, 2012, pp. 28-29.
Christian Boehm, 'A Tea Master's Vision: Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection', Arts of Asia, July-August 2018, fig. 14.

Exhibited: Chugoku Toji Series, vol. 5: Celadon of Yaozhou Ware - Tang to Northern Song, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1991, cat. no. 25.
Chugoku Toji Meihin Ten Ise Korekushon no Shiho / Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramic Art Exhibition, Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Ishikawa, 2012, cat. no. 30.
Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 22.
Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 28.

Lot 5031. A qingbai lobed bowl, Song dynasty (960-1279); 18.6 cm. Estimate 20,000 - 30,000 HKD. Lot sold 88,900 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

with gently rounded sides rising from a short foot to a hexalobed rim, the interior with six petals divided by faint ridges, applied overall save for the mouth rim with a blue-tinged transparent glaze, metal-bound rim, wood stand.

Exhibited: Chugoku Toji Meihin Ten Ise Korekushon no Shiho / Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramic Art Exhibition, Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Ishikawa, 2012, cat. no. 27.

Lot 5032. A carved Yaozhou celadon 'peony' dish, Northern Song dynasty (960-1279); 18.5 cm. Estimate 80,000 - 120,000 HKD. Lot sold 533,400 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

with shallow flaring sides rising from a low foot to an everted rolled rim, the interior carved with a large peony spray amidst scrolling foliage, the petals and leaves accentuated with combed details, covered overall save for the footring with an olive-green glaze, Japanese wood box.

Lot 5033. A Junyao purple-splashed cup, Song - Jin dynasty (960-1234); 11.5 cm. Estimate 100,000 - 200,000 HKD. Lot sold 101,600 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

rising from a short foot to a slightly incurved rim, covered overall save for the foot in a milky blue glaze thinning at the rim to a light mushroom tone, accented with a reddish-purple splash on the exterior and continuing onto the interior rim, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Kusaka Shogado & Co., Tokyo.

Lot 5034. A pair of shufu white-glazed 'lotus' dishes, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368); 16 and 16.2 cm. Estimate 120,000 - 240,000 HKD. Lot sold 381,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

each potted with rounded sides, moulded in the centre with a circular medallion enclosing four lotus blooms borne on and encircled by continuous scrolling stems, beneath the well with a matching frieze, with the characters shu and fu opposite to each other amidst the stems, all beneath a blue-tinted white glaze, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 31st October 1995, lot 354.
Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Lot 5035. An small 'beishoku' guan vase, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); 17.5 cm. Estimate 2,000,000 - 4,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 2,540,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

elegantly potted with a compressed globular body, rising from a tall tapered foot pierced with two slots, surmounted by a cylindrical neck, covered overall with a celadon-beige glaze, the glaze suffused with a dense network of crackles, the footring unglazed revealing the buff-coloured body, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Hirano Kotoken.

Note: This vase boasts an elegant shape, and no complete Southern Song guan counterparts of such chuandai ping (vase with two apertures on the foot) appear to be known. Compare two guan long-necked vases with beige glazes, likely from the same kiln, illustrated in Nezu Museum, Nan So no Seiji Sora wo Utsusu Utsuwa / Heavenly Blue: Southern Song Celadons, Tokyo, 2010, pls 58 and 59. The Longquan kiln was also deeply influenced by this type of guan ware, compare a Longquan celadon chuandai ping in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelains of the Two Song Dynasties, Hong Kong, 1996, vol. II, no. 99.

When compared with kiln site excavated shards, the body and glaze of the present lot bear a closer resemblance to those unearthed from Jiaotanxia site, similar to a set of shards collected from this kiln site as detailed in ibid, Tokyo, nos 82-2, 8, 9, 15.

Lot 5114. A magnificent and exceedingly rare amber-glazed appliqué-decorated vase, Sui dynasty (581-618); 46.5 cm. Estimate 2,000,000 - 4,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 4,318,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

the globular body rising from a tall spreading foot to stepped shoulders, surmounted by a trumpet neck flaring at the rim, the exterior applied with bands of moulded animal masks suspending mock rings and seated spirits, interspersed between stylised palmettes and single lotus lappets, all above a band of lappets, the neck encircled by raised fillets between two bands of lotus lappets, the foot similarly decorated with raised fillets above a band of lotus lappets alternating with palmettes, applied overall with an amber-coloured glaze pooling at the recesses to a deeper ochre tone and coagulating just above the foot, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo. 

Collection of Tsuneichi Inoue (1906-65), Tokyo.

Sotheby's London, 13th May 2015, lot 7.

Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Literature: Fujio Koyama, ed., Sekai Toji Zenshu: Chugoku Sui To Hen [Collection of World Ceramics: Sui and Tang Dynasty], vol. 9, Tokyo, 1956, pl. 49.

Katsutoshi Ono, Sekai Bijutsu Zenshu Chugoku IV: Sui To [New History of Art World: China IV Sui and Tang], vol. 15, Tokyo, 1961, pl. 57.

Masahiko Sato and Hasebe Gakuji , Sekai Toji Zenshu. Sui To [The Complete Works of World Ceramics. Sui and Tang], vol. 11, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 1.

Mayuyama: Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 96.

Osaka Municipal Museum of Art ed., Rikucho no Bijutsu [The Art of Six Dynasties], Tokyo, 1976, cat. no. 25 (unillustrated).

Masahiko Sato, Chugoku Toji Shi [The History of Chinese Ceramics], Tokyo, 1978, pl. 33.

Chugoku Tojishi Kenkyukai, Toji Hasebe Gakuji Sensei Taikan Kinen Zuroku [Tang pottery and porcelain: Commemorating Mr Gakuji Hasebe's retirement], Tokyo, 1989, pl. 6.

Sekai Bijutsu Daizenshu Toyo Hen: Sui To / New History of World Art, vol. 4: Sui and Tang, Tokyo, 1997, pl. 228.

Christian Boehm, 'A Tea Master's Vision: Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection', Arts of Asia, July-August 2018, fig. 2.

Exhibited: Sui To no Bijutsu Aki no Tokubetsu Tenrankai [Fine art of Sui and Tang Special Exhibition], Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto, 1959, cat. no. 143.

Chugoku Meitou Ten [Chinese ceramics. A loan Exhibition of Selected Masterpieces], Hiroshima Fukuya, Hiroshima, 1961, cat. no. 7.

Chugoku Toji Meiho Ten [Exhibition of the Great Works of Chinese Ceramic], Gotoh Museum, Tokyo, 1966.

Chugoku Bijutsu Ten Series: Rikucho no Bijutsu [Chinese Art Exhibition Series], vol. 2: Art of Six Dynasties, Osaka Art Museum, Osaka, 1975, cat. no. 25 (unillustrated).

Tokubetsuten Toji [Tang Pottery and Porcelain], Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo, 1988, cat. no. 6. 

Chugoku Toji bi wo Miru Kokoro [Chinese Ceramics, Enlightening through Beauty], Sen-oku Hakuko Kan Bunkan, Tokyo, 2006, cat. no. 7.

Nihon tojji kyokai setsuritsu nanajushunen kinen chakai [Tea ceremony to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Japan Ceramic Society], Tokyo, 2016.

Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 3.

Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 4.

Lot 5115. A sancai-glazed appliqué-decorated tripod vessel and cover, Tang dynasty​​​​​​​ (618-907); h. 22 2 cm. Estimate 500,000- 1,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 330,200 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

of compressed globular form and supported on three crisply moulded paw supports, the exterior embellished with three sprig-moulded appliqué medallions of palmettes at the shoulder, alternating with three large floral medallions on the rounded body, the cover centred with a lotus-bud finial, covered overall save for the interior and base with a lustrous amber lead glaze with green and reserved white spots, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: A Kansai private collection.

Hirano Kotoken.

Literature: Chugoku Toji. Ise Korekushon / Chinese Ceramics. The Ise Collection, Tokyo, 2012, pp. 14-15..

Christian Boehm, 'A Tea Master's Vision: Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection', Arts of Asia, July-August 2018, fig. 3.

Exhibited: Chugoku Toji Meihin Ten Ise Korekushon no Shiho / Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramic Art Exhibition, Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Ishikawa, 2012, cat. no. 20.

Shika Meisai: Ise Korekushon no Meito / Imperial Colors: Peerless Chinese Porcelains from the Ise Collection, Gotoh Museum, Tokyo, 2015, cat. no. 2.

Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 5.

Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 10.

Lot 5116. A painted pottery figure of a court lady, Tang dynasty​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ (618-907); 43.9 cm. Estimate 400,000 - 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 508,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

the curvaceous figure modelled standing elegantly on a square base, one hand gracefully raised while the other lowered, dressed in a long flowing robe with wide sleeves, her hair arranged in two high buns, wood stand and Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Collection of Sorimachi Mosaku (1888-1962).

Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Literature: Komeiki Deizo Zukan [Selection of Chinese Pottery Figures for Funeral], Tokyo, 1938, pl. 28.

Katsutoshi Ono, Sekai Bijutsu Zenshu Chugoku IV: Sui To [New History of Art World: China IV Sui and Tang], vol. 15, Tokyo, 1961, pl. 40.

Masahiko Sato, Chugoku no Dugu [Pottery Figures in China], Tokyo, 1965, no. 123.

Masahiko Sato, Toji Taikei [Ceramic Great Series], vol. 34: Chugoku no Dogu [Pottery Figures in China], Heibonsha, Tokyo, 1972, no. 63.

Mayuyama: Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 179.

Chugoku Toji. Ise Korekushon / Chinese Ceramics. The Ise Collection, Tokyo, 2012, p. 124.

Exhibited: Chugoku Bijutsu 5000 Nen Ten [5000 years of Chinese Art], Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, 1966, cat. no. 5-40.

Chugoku Bijutsu-Ten Series 3 Zui To no Bijsutsu [Chinese Art Exhibition Series 3: The Art of Sui and Tang], Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Osaka, 1976, cat. no. 1-187.

You [Yang 110th Anniversary Exhibition], Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo, 2015, cat. no. 20.

Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 7.

Lot 5117. A small sancai-glazed bottle vase, Tang dynasty​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ (618-907); 20.4 cm. Estimate 600,000 - 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 2,921,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

elegantly potted with a globular body raised on a spreading pedestal foot, surmounted by a tall waisted neck and wide flared rim, splashed with vibrant sancai lead glazes in amber, green, and cream tones, the fluid glazes cascading down the surface to create an organic glaze effect, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Collection of Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972), a prominent Japanese novelist and winner of the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

A Japanese private collection.

Kitayama Bijutsuten, Tokyo.

Literature: Kawabata Yasunari Zenshu [Works by Kawabata Yasunari], vol. 10: Meijin [The Master of Go], Shinchosha, Tokyo, 1960, frontispiece.

Gakuji Hasebe, 'To san sai bin [A sancai vase]', Kobijutsu [A Quarterly Review of Fine Arts], vol. 11, November 1965, pp. 74-76.

Mayuyama: Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 240.

Chugoku Toji. Ise Korekushon / Chinese Ceramics. The Ise Collection, Tokyo, 2012, pp. 12-13.

Geijutsu Shincho [A Monthly Japanese Art Journal], May 2012 (Supplement), pl. 2.

Nagomi [A Monthly Magazine by Tankosha], Tankosha, Tokyo, May 2018, p. 11.

Tosetsu / A Monthly Journal Published by The Japan Ceramic Society, vol. 803, March 2020, pl. 1. 

Exhibited: To So Meito Ten [Masterpieces of Tang and Song Ceramics], Shirokiya, Tokyo, 1964, cat. no. 19.

Chugoku Toji Meihin Ten Ise Korekushon no Shiho / Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramic Art Exhibition, Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Ishikawa, 2012, cat. no. 18.

Shika Meisai: Ise Korekushon no Meito / Imperial Colors: Peerless Chinese Porcelains from the Ise Collection, Gotoh Museum, Tokyo, 2015, cat. no. 1.

Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 4.

Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 9.

Lot 5118. A sancai-glazed figure of a court lady, Tang dynasty​​​​​​​ (618-907); 43 cm. Estimate 400,000 - 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 381,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

elegantly modelled standing on a square base, her hands clasped at the waist and concealed beneath a draped sash, adorned in a long flowing robe rendered in glazes of green, amber, and cream, Japanese double wood box.

Provenance: Hirano Kotoken.

Literature: Chugoku Toji. Ise Korekushon / Chinese Ceramics. The Ise Collection, Tokyo, 2012, p. 11.

Geijutsu Shincho [A Monthly Japanese Art Journal], May 2012 (Supplement), pl. 1.

Exhibited: Tokubetsu Ten Chugoku no Toji / Special Exhibition: Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 1994, cat. no. 119.

Chugoku Toji Meihin Ten Ise Korekushon no Shiho / Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramic Art Exhibition, Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Ishikawa, 2012, cat. no. 23.

Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 8.

Lot 5119. A blue and sancai-glazed tripod dish, Tang dynasty (618-907); 28.9 cm. Estimate 800,000 - 1,600,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,079,500 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

the shallow rounded sides rising from a flat base supported on three short cabriole legs, incised to the centre with a circular roundel enclosing a rosette encircled by petals, surrounded by alternating lotus leaves and small lotus buds borne on stems, picked out in amber, blue, green, and straw glazes, all reserved against a deep blue ground, Japanese double wood box

Provenance: Hirano Kotoken.

Literature: Chugoku Toji. Ise Korekushon / Chinese Ceramics. The Ise Collection, Tokyo, 2012, p. 16-17.

Christian Boehm, 'A Tea Master's Vision: Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection', Arts of Asia, July-August 2018, fig. 4.

Exhibited: Hirano Kotoken Honten Shinchiku Kinen Chugoku Toji-ten [Commemoration of the Gallery Refurbishment: Chinese Porcelains], Hirano Kotoken, Osaka, 1990, cat. no. 11.

Tokubetsu Ten Chugoku no Toji [Special Exhibition: Chinese Ceramics], Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 1994, p. 82, no. 116.

Chugoku Toji Meihin Ten Ise Korekushon no Shiho / Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramic Art Exhibition, Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Ishikawa, 2012, cat. no. 22.

Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 6.

Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 11.

Note: Of all the ceramic wares made during the Tang dynasty, tripod dishes with such flamboyant floral designs in brilliant sancai enamels perhaps best illustrate the international spirit of the period. The intensification of trade via the Silk Route resulted in the emergence of new commercial cities throughout China, including the capital Chang’an, modern Xi’an, Shaanxi province, which became the largest city in the world. These bustling urban centres attracted an influx of foreigners who came from such disparate places as Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Rome, India, and Japan. The goods they brought with them and their tastes strongly influenced the repertoire of Tang craftsmen. The moulded floral motif on this dish and the use of cobalt are examples of this interaction: the former was inspired by designs on Central Asian textiles, while the latter was an expensive pigment imported from Persia.

Tang potters took inspiration from a wide variety of sources and often looked for inspiration in objects in more luxurious materials, such as silver. The characteristic form of this dish with three cabriole legs was inspired by contemporary silver offering trays, such as the lobed tray unearthed at the site of the Daming Palace, Xi’an, now in the National Museum of China, Beijing, accession no. 1101012180003610675715. These offering trays were held by the legs, as illustrated in a wall painting of a lady carrying such a tray, in the tomb of princess Fangling (d. 673) in Zhaoling, now preserved in the Shaanxi History Museum, Xi’an. 

Dishes of similar design include one sold in our New York rooms, 4th December 1985, lot 176; another with a flat rim, sold in these rooms, 2nd March 1971, lot 123, and now in the Tokyo National Museum; and a third dish, with the blue stopping below the well, sold in these rooms, 9th December 1986, lot 56. See also a dish of this design, but on a green ground, in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., accession no. F1949.13; and a dish with a plain white ground, in the Tokyo National Museum, accession no. TG-677.

Lot 5120. A massive painted pottery figure of a court lady, Northern Wei dynasty (386-534); 60.7 cm. Estimate 400,000 - 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 3,429,500 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

the slender figure adorned in a high headdress and a long robe with a sash tied below the chest, wood stand and Japanese wood box.

Provenance: A Japanese private collection.

Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo, acquired from the above in 1953.

Literature: Mayuyama: Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 156.

Yakimono Kyoshitsu [Study of pottery], vol. 28: Kan Rikucho no Dogu [Pottery Figures in Han and Six dynasties], Tokyo, 1963, pl. 33.

Exhibited: You [Yong 2015: 110th Anniversary Exhibition], Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo, 2015, cat. no. 8.

Chugoku Toji Bi wo Mirukokoro [Chinese Ceramics, Enlightening through Beauty], Sen-oku Hakuko Kan, 2006, cat. no. 3.

Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 5.

Lot 5121. A painted pottery figure of a horse, Northern Wei dynasty (386-534); h. 19.5 cm. Estimate 300,000 - 600,000 HKD. Lot sold 254,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

depicted standing foursquare on a rectangular plinth, portrayed with a slender head with a strap harness, the muscular body adorned with a saddle decorated with floral motifs, further rendered with a chest strap hung with conch-shaped trappings with raised floral designs, and a further strap to the hip with floral pendants, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Hirano Kotoken.

Exhibited: Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 6.

Lot 5122. A blue-splashed jar and cover, Tang dynasty (618-907); overall h. 22.8 cm. Estimate 200,000 - 400,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,905,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

the shallow rounded sides rising from a flat base supported on three short cabriole legs, incised to the centre with a circular roundel enclosing a rosette encircled by petals, surrounded by alternating lotus leaves and small lotus buds borne on stems, picked out in amber, blue, green, and straw glazes, all reserved against a deep blue ground, Japanese double wood box

Provenance: Hirano Kotoken.

Literature: Mayuyama: Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 255.

Osaka Municipal Art Museum ed., Zui To no Bijutsu [Arts of the Sui and Tang Periods], Tokyo, 1978, pl. 87.

Mikami Tuguo, Toki koza Chugoku I. Kodai [Ceramic Course China, I. Antiquities], vol. 5, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 98.

Exhibited: Chugoku Bijutsu-ten Series 3 Zui To no Bijsutsu [Chinese Art Exhibition Series 3: The Art of Sui and Tang], Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Osaka, 1976, cat. no. 1-41.

Lot 5123. A sancai-glazed jar and cover, Tang dynasty (618-907); overall h. 27.2 cm. Estimate 300,000 - 600,000 HKD. Lot sold 330,200 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

of ovoid form with a flat base, the rounded sides tapering to a short splayed foot, surmounted by an everted lipped rim glazed in green, the neck glazed in white, and the body painted in blue, green, and amber with triangular and diamond-shaped panels, reserved white florets, and dots, the domed cover similarly decorated and surmounted with an amber-glazed floral bud finial, Japanese wood box.

The dating of this lot is consistent with the results of Oxford Authentication Ltd, thermoluminescence test C199d58.

Provenance: Hirano Kotoken.

Literature: ​​​​​​​Chugoku Toji. Ise Korekushon / Chinese Ceramics. The Ise Collection, Tokyo, 2012, p. 19.

Exhibited: Chugoku Bijutsu-ten Series 3 Zui To no Bijsutsu [Chinese Art Exhibition Series 3: The Art of Sui and Tang], Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Osaka, 1976, cat. no.21.

Lot 5124. A white-glazed jar, Tang dynasty (618-907); h. 25.6 cm. Estimate 150,000 - 200,000 HKD. Lot sold 57,150 HKD. © Sotheby's 2025

sturdily potted with a baluster body rising from a flat base to a short waisted neck and rolled rim, covered overall save for the base with a creamy-white glaze, Japanese wood box.

Exhibited: Chugoku Bijutsu-ten Series 3 Zui To no Bijsutsu [Chinese Art Exhibition Series 3: The Art of Sui and Tang], Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Osaka, 1976, cat. no.21.

Sotheby's. Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Hong Kong, 9 September 2025