Lot 3216. A Yaozhou persimmon-glazed vase, meiping, Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127);10 in. (25.4 cm.) high. Estimate HK$1,500,000 - HK$2,500,000 ($194,359 - $323,932). Price Realized HK$1,840,000 ($238,358). © Christie's Image Ltd 2014

The vase is well potted with an ovoid body rising from a slightly splayed foot to rounded shoulders and waisted neck below a flat everted rim. The vase is covered overall with a glaze of russet-brown tone with an attractive sheen, with hues of moss green in areas of pooling especially to the mouth rim, with the exception of the foot rim exposing the buff body. 

Provenance: Sir Herbert Ingram (1875-1958) 

Exhibited: Oriental Ceramic Society, Sung Dynasty Wares. Chun and Brown Glazes, London, 1-31 May 1952, Catalogue, no. 112 

Note: The satiny persimmon glaze was produced in many Northern kilns in the Song dynasty and was highly admired for the alluring sheen on the surface and occasional hues of subtle moss green. Persimmon-glazed meiping are very rare and only a few comparable examples are known. A slightly shorter example with broader shoulders and a countersunk base is in the collections of the Ataka Family and Linyushanren, exhibited at The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics. An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, November 2012, Catalogue, no. 35. A shorter and more globular vase is in the National Museum of Korea, Seoul, illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 12, Tokyo, 1977, pl. 123. A truncated meiping is in the Idemitsu Museum of Art, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl. 112. 

Christie's. THE SOUND OF JADE AND THE SHADOW OF A CHRYSANTHEMUM, Hong Kong, 28 May 2014