Lot 2535. A fine and rare 'numbered' junyao foliate rim tripod 'Narcissus' bowl, Yuan-Early Ming dynasty, 14th-15th century; 7 7/16 in. (19.2 cm.) wide. Estimate HK$500,000 - HK$800,000 ($64,825 - $103,720). Price Realized HK$2,420,000 ($313,657). © Christie's Image Ltd 2008.

Potted with rounded sides rising to an everted lipped rim and shaped into six barbed lobes, supported on a footrim of conforming shape with three ruyi-head shaped feet, the underside base carved with the numeral Shi, 'ten', and washed with a brown glaze showing a ring of spur marks just inside the footrim, applied on the exterior with a lustrous soft sky-blue tone, Japanese wood box. 

Provenance: Mayuyama, by repute
A Japanese private collection acquired in Kansai in the 1950's

Note: Compare with two related purple-splashed examples of this barbed rim shape, both incised with the numeral 'ten' on the base; the first in the Qing Court collection, Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (1), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1996, nos. 29 and 32; and the other is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 10, 1980, no. 212.

Research has suggested that the numbers incised on the bases of junyao vessels, clearly relate to the size of the vessel and may also indicate which rooms they were kept in at the imperial palace. As a rule, the larger the numeral on these 'numbered' jun wares, the smaller the size of the vessel. 

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. 3 December 2008. Hong Kong.