Lot 1101. A rare 'Dongyao' celadon bowl with phoenix appliqué, Five Dynasties  (907-960), 12.7 cm, 5 in. Estimate 300,000 — 500,000 HKD (36,414 - 60,690 EUR). Photo: Sotheby's.

the rounded sides rising from a slightly splayed foot to an incurved rim, applied to the interior with a crisply moulded phoenix, the bird coiled around its body and its plumage neatly defined, covered overall in a translucent olive-green glaze, the glazed footring with three spurs adhered with sand

Provenance: J.J. Lally & Co., New York.

Note: Bowls of this shape and fragments with similar applied motifs have been excavated at the Huangpu kiln sites in Tongchuan, Shaanxi province, and are illustrated in Wudai Huangpu yaozhi [The remains of the Five Dynasties Huangpu Kiln], Beijing, 1997, pp. 38 and 54-62, pls 21-4. These kilns, predecessors of the Yaozhou kilns, are often referred to as Dongyao, 'Eastern kilns'.

A celadon-glazed bowl of similar form and with an applied animal motif on the interior was included in the exhibition The Masterpieces of Yaozhou Ware, The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1997, cat. no. 15; another of lobed shape, in the Meiyintang Collection, is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 3, pt. II, London, 2006, pl. 1475; and a third bowl, carved on the exterior with petals, was included in the exhibition Treasures from the Underground Palaces. Excavated Treasures from Northern Song Pagodas, Dingzhou, Hebei Province, China, Idemitsu Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1997, cat. no. 80.

Sotheby's. Chinese Art from Two American Private Collections, Hong Kong, 05 avr. 2017, 10:30 AM