Lot 1534. A Jizhou painted brown-glazed 'Phoenix' bowl, Southern Song-Yuan dynasty, 12th-14th century, 4 ½ in. (11.5 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 8,000 - USD 12,000. Price realised USD 20,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2016

The bowl has rounded sides that rise to a slightly indented rim, and is covered with a dark brown glaze decorated on the interior in overglaze buff with a central flower head encircled by two phoenixes in flight between flower sprigs, which ends in an irregular line on the exterior, exposing the pale grey ware.

Provenance: By repute, John Sparks Ltd., London, acquired in the 1930s.
George Harwood Sr., Johannesburg, South Africa, and thence by descent.

Note: A bowl of this shape, similarly decorated in buff overglaze with two phoenixes in flight in the interior, is illustrated by R. D. Mowry in Hare's, Tortoiseshell and Partridge Feathers: Chinese Brown- and Black-Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Harvard University Art Museums, 1996, p. 239, no. 95.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art part II, 17 - 18 March 2016, New York