Lot 1001. Property from The Art Institute of Chicago, Sold to Enhance the Asian Art Collection and Care. A Jian 'hare's fur'-glazed tea bowl, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); 12.1 cm diam. Price realised USD 19,200 ( Estimate USD 4,000 – USD 6,000) © Christie's Images Ltd 2026

The base of the bowl is inscribed in ink with a character reading jia, which may be translated as 'excellent'.

Provenance: Kate Sturges Buckingham (1858-1937) Collection, Chicago, before 1924.
The Art Institute of Chicago, accessioned as the Collection of Lucy Maud Buckingham (1870-1920) in 1924.

Lot 1002. Property from The Art Institute of Chicago, Sold to Enhance the Asian Art Collection and Care. A rare small Ding melon-shaped ewer, Song dynasty (AD 960-1279); 16.1 cm high. Price realised USD 16,640 (Estimate USD 3,000 – USD 5,000)© Christie's Images Ltd 2026
 

Provenance: Stanley Herzman (1906-2001) Collection, Chicago.
The Art Institute of Chicago, accessioned in 1997.
 

Exhibited: Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chinese Ceramics and Lacquers: The Stanley Herzman Collection, May-September 1997.
 

Note: A Song dynasty Ding ewer with a similar handle was excavated in 1973 at Xiyanchuan village, Quyang county, and is published in Complete Collection of Ceramic Art Unearthed in China – 3 – Hebei, Beijing, 2008, no. 140. Another Ding ewer with similar carved and impressed appliques dated to the Song dynasty is illustrated in Gugong bowuyuan cang gutaoci ziliao xuancui (Selected Materials on Ancient Ceramics from the Collection of the Palace Museum), Volume 1, Beijing, 2005, p. 103, no. 81.

Lot 1003. Property from The Art Institute of Chicago, Sold to Enhance the Asian Art Collection and Care. A rare small carved Qingbai tixi-style meiping, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279; 18.4 cm high. Price realised USD 83,200 (Estimate USD 12,000 – USD 18,000) © Christie's Images Ltd 2026
 

Provenance: Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York, no. 4921 (according to label).
Henry C. Schwab (1867-1941) Collection, Chicago.
The Art Institute of Chicago, accessioned in 1941.
 

Note: The shape and decoration of qingbai wares were often inspired by contemporaneous silver vessels. A silver meiping ornamented with ruyi-shaped scrolls, excavated from a Southern Song hoard in Sichuan, appears to provide a close parallel and may have served as the prototype for the design of the present vase. The silver vessel is illustrated in S. Kwan, “Tixi wenyang fenqi chuyi,” Proceedings of Conference on Ancient Chinese Lacquer, Hong Kong, 2012, p. 65, fig. 11.

Qingbai vases of this form and decoration are represented in major museum and institutional collections worldwide. An almost identical example, formerly in the Qing Court Collection and now preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum—33—Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 167. Another example, designated an Important Art Object in Japan, is illustrated in Mayuyama Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 450. A related vase in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World’s Great Collections, vol. 11, New York/Tokyo, 1982, pl. 59. A slightly larger example (28.6 cm high) in the Idemitsu Collection is published in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl. 423, while another in the Meiyintang Collection is illustrated by R. Krahl in Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 1, London, p. 325, no. 606. Two additional qingbai meiping of this type from the Yangdetang Collection were sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2016, lots 3140 and 3141.

To be continued

Christie's. Important Chinese Art Including Ceramics from the Art Institute of Chicago, New York, 17/128 September 2026