A rare green and yellow-glazed pottery ribbed tripod vessel, lian, Tang dynasty (618-907). © Christie's Image 2003

The interior covered in a thin yellowish ochre glaze and the ribbed exterior and feet with a green glaze - 6 3/8in. (16.2cm.) diam. Lot 227. Estimate $2,000 - $3,000. Price Realized $1,912 

Provenance: Professor Jan Hellner Collection. 

Literature: O. Siren, Histoire des Arts Anciens de la Chine: L'Époque Han et les Six Dynasties, Paris and Brussels, 1929, vol. II, pl. 106B. 

Notes: This rare lian is similar to one of slightly smaller size, also covered with a green glaze on the exterior and a yellow glaze on the interior, illustrated by d'Argencé, The Hans Popper Collection of Oriental Art, Japan, 1973, pp. 92-3, no. 57, and a slightly larger one is in the Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum, Chinese Ceramics I, Tokyo, 1988, p. 61, no. 236. 

CHRISTIE'S. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 18 September 2003, New York, Rockefeller Plaza