Lot 30. Property from the Cunliffe Collection. A fine Henan black-glazed pear-shaped vase, yuhuchun ping, Jin Dynasty; 28cm (11in) high. Sold for £37,500 (€47,614). © Bonhams 2001-2016.

Of broad pear shape rising from a low foot to a waisted neck and flared rim, covered overall with a lustrous brownish-black glaze speckled with rust-brown and two stylised birds in flight boldly painted in caramel-brown.

Provenance: Rolf, Lord Cunliffe (1899-1963), Honorary Keeper of the Far Eastern Collections at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 
Dennis Haworth Collection
Acquired from Dennis Haworth by Bluett & Sons Ltd., London, 25 May 1949
Acquired from Bluett & Sons Ltd., London, 29 June 1949
The Cunfliffe Collection, no.ZC10, and thence by descent 

Exhibited and Published: Manchester City Art Gallery, Chinese Art Exhibition, Manchester, 3 April - 16 May 1936, no. 245 
Oriental Ceramic Society, Sung Dynasty Wares: Ting, Ying Ch'ing and Tz'u Chou, London, 9 November - 17 December 1949, no.151 

Note: A similar brown painted pear-shaped vase in the British Museum is illustrated by M.Medley, Yuan Porcelain & Stoneware, London, 1973, pl.109a. Compare also with a related pear-shaped bottle vase with decorations of stylised birds in flight, illustrated by R.D.Mowry, Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers: Chinese Brown and Black Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Harvard University Art Museums, 1996, pp.159-161, no.52. For a further example of similar decoration of birds in flight from the Jin Dynasty, but on a globular jar, see Heaven and Earth Seen Within: Song Ceramics from the Robert Barron Collection, New Orleans Museum of Art, 2000, pp.110-111, no.40.

Bonhams. AUCTION 23237: FINE CHINESE ART, 10:30 BST - LONDON, NEW BOND STREET