A sancai-glazed pottery quatrefoil dish, Liao dynasty. Estimate 10,000 — 12,000 USD. Photo Sotheby's.

of oblong shape with shallow sides terminating in an everted barbed rim, the interior crisply impressed with three lotus blossoms encircled with amber glaze on a cream-colored ground impressed with wave patterns and splashed with green, the cavetto amber-glazed and the rim glazed in green over a band of scrolling meander, the underside revealing a layer of white slip, the base unglazed, Japanese wood box. Length 10 3/8  in., 26.5 cm

Notes: This long shallow shape with foliate rims and intricate molded decoration is derived from repousse gold or silver prototypes. While not able to emulate the fineness of the metal version, the potters worked to achieve the thin elegance of the form and were able to highlight the design with colorful glazes. Two similar examples, one with a green ground and one with a white ground, were excavated in Xiaoliuzhangzi, Nincheng county, Inner Mongolia and datable to the 11th century, were exhibited and illustrated in Gilded Splendor, Treasures of China's Liao Empire, Asia Society and Museum, New York, 2006, pp. 358-359,  cat. nos. 116 a-b. Other examples of this shape and floral design are illsutrated in Toji Taikei, vol. 40, Tokyo, 1974, no 67, col. pl. 21. For a silver plate example of the same form excavated from a hoard in Balin Right Banner see Wenwu, 1980.5, p. 48, fig. 10.

Sotheby's. Chinese Art through the Eye of Sakamoto Gor – Ceramics, New York, 17 mars 2015, 10:00 AM