A large purple-splashed Junyao water pot, Jin dynasty, 12th-13th century. Estimate $15,000 – $25,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The vessel of lotus-bud form, is covered inside and out with a glaze of milky-blue color, with a cloud of bluish purple on one side, and thinning to mushroom below the unglazed mouth rim, and falling in an irregular line above the low, waisted foot ring to expose the buff stoneware body. 4 ¼ in. (10.8 cm.) high

Notes: Similar water pots include one illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection, vol. I, Geneva, 1968, no. A 30; an example with crackled glaze in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 10, Tokyo, 1980, no. 167; and one illustrated by W. Hochstadter, Early Chinese Ceramics in the Buffalo Museum of Science, New York, 1946, no. 62.

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 17 - 18 September 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza