Lot 22. A fine and rare black glazed 'Yaozhou' ewer, Tang-Five Dynasties, 9 1/8 in., 23.2 cm. Estimate 20,000 -- 30,000 USD. Lot sold 33,600 USD. © Sotheby's.

well potted, the pear-shaped body set with a waisted neck and a pinched lip for a spout opposite a strap handle terminating in a scroll on the shoulder, applied evenly overall with a deep brown glaze thinning at the rim and along the edges to a russet brown, stopping neatly before the unglazed foot revealing an oatmeal body.

Note: The remarkable glaze seen on this ewer is representavive of the very fine black-glazed wares produced at the Yaozhou kilns at Tongchuan in Shaanxi province during the Tang dynasty. See six examples of  black-glazed wares of different shapes and forms illustrated in Yaozhou Kiln, Xi'an, 1992, pp. 25- 28. It is rare to find Tang ewers of this shape, after metal prototypes of the period, although a related Tang phosphatic-splashed ewer with similar bulbous ovoid form body, but with a taller neck and a long double-strap handle, was included in the exhibition Tang Pottery and Porcelain, Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo, 1988, cat.no. 31. 

The dating of this lot is consistent with the results of a thermoluminescence test, Oxford Authentication, Ltd., no. P104r84.