Lot 11. A fine and rare 'Yue' jar and cover, Northern Qi Dynasty (550-577), 13 1/4 in., 33.6 cm. Estimate 25,000 — 35,000 USD. Lot sold 21,600 USD. © Sotheby's.

 the well-potted, elegantly balanced globular vessel standing on a flat foot rising to rounded sides set with eight squared lug handles around the shoulder separated by four sections of a raised filet, above a band of impressed circles interspersed with lobed leaves on a trefoil base and larger molded leaves each impressed at the top of a sharply cut lotus petal flaring out from the waist, the short cylindrical neck surmounted by a domed cover crowned with lotus petals rising up around the rim, all beneath a glassy pale olive-green glaze stopping neatly above the foot.

Note: This jar is remarkable for its large size and incised floral decoration on the bands of the pendant lotus petals covering the upper-half of the body. For an example of a related lotus petal jar, but lacking any incised decoration on the body, see one in the Tokyo National Museum illustrated in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 2. Compare also a green-glazed jar of related form, incised with flower roundels but without the raised lotus petal border on the body, illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji, vol. 4, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 229. See also the famous lead-glazed stoneware jar of related form, from Puyang, Henan province, illustrated ibid., pl. 249.