Lot 851. A Jizhou resist-decorated papercut conical bowl, China, Southern Song Dynasty, 12th-13th century;4 ¼ in. (10.8 cm.) diameter. Estimate $12,000 - $18,000. Price Realized $40,000. ©Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The interior decorated in resist technique with paper-cut decoration of three diamond-shaped, openwork flowers reserved in brown against the variegated, milky buff ground, the exterior covered in a 'tortoiseshell' glaze of dark brown color mottled in beige falling to the small, circular foot, box

Provenance: The Collection of Robert H. Ellsworth, New York, acquired in Hong Kong, 1987.

Literature: R. D. Mowry, Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers: Chinese Brown- and Black-Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Cambridge, 1996, pp. 248-249, no. 100.

Exhibited: Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers: Chinese Brown- and Black-Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 23 December 1995 - 10 March 1996; China Institute Gallery, New York, 20 April - 6 July 1996; Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 9 November 1996 - 19 January 1997.

Note: Among the daring and innovative techniques, for which the Jizhou kilns in Jiangxi province are most famous, is the technique of using paper cut-outs as stencils to create resist designs. For a discussion of the processes involved in producing these designs see R.D. Mowry, Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers, Cambridge, 1996, pp. 36-7. Two Jizhou bowls with similar paper-cut designs of three stylized flowers  on the interior and a 'tortoiseshell’ glaze on the exterior are illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum – 33 – Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), Hong Kong, 1996, nos. 218 and 220.

Christie's. THE COLLECTION OF ROBERT HATFIELD ELLSWORTH PART IV - CHINESE WORKS OF ART: METALWORK, SCULPTURE AND EARLY CERAMICS, 20 March 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza.