Lot 764. A Cizhou-type conical 'hare's fur' tea bowl, Song dynasty, 12th-13th century; 5¼ in. (13.1 cm.) diam. Estimate $12,000 - USD 18,000. Price Realized $15,000. © Christie’s Image Ltd 2014

The bowl has widely flaring sides that rise from the small knife-cut foot to the slightly everted rim, and is covered allover with a lustrous black glaze finely streaked with 'hare's fur' markings thinning to russet brown at the rim. 

Property from the Collection of James E. Breece III.

Lot 765. A Cizhou-type black-glazed ribbed jar, Northern Song-Jin dynasty, 12th century;6¼ in. (15.8 cm.) high. Estimate $6,000 - USD 8,000. Price Realized $7,500. © Christie’s Image Ltd 2014

Of ovoid form with a wide neck, the body is decorated with groups of three narrowly spaced vertical ribs formed by trails of white slip and covered with a slightly mottled black glaze, that continues over the rounded mouth rim and thins to pale russet on the ribs and slip ribs that decorate the tapering strap handles. The lower body, interior, foot and base are covered with a thin glaze of caramel tone.

Property from the Collection of James E. Breece III.

Note: Certain characteristics, such as the rolled lip, tall, tapering neck, striated handles, and thin caramel-colored glaze around the lower portion and inside of the vessel indicate an area of production in Henan or Hebei provinces. A closely related jar recovered from the kilns at Haobiji in Henan province is illustrated by Zhao Qingyun, Henan Taoci Shi, Beijing, 1993, pl. 27, no. 109.

Lot 766. A Cizhou-type painted sgraffiato pillow, Song dynasty (AD 960-1279);12 in. (30.5 cm.) long. Estimate $25,000 - USD 35,000. Price Realized $87,500. © Christie’s Image Ltd 2014

Of octagonal shape, the pillow is painted on top in dark brown on a white slip with two foliate sprays within linear borders. The side panels are decorated with abstract foliate sprays and trellis pattern, separated by bamboo-form corners, all under a clear glaze with combed details.

Provenance:  Sotheby's London, 2 December 1997, lot 186.

Property from the Collection of James E. Breece III.

Note: This elongated octagonal form was a popular one among pillows from the Cizhou kilns. The Palace Museum, Beijing, has several Song dynasty Cizhou pillows of this shape decorated in a variety of styles. Some combine sgraffiato decoration with sancai-type glazing, for example the pillow illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 32 - Porcelains of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong, 1996, p. 215, no. 194, and others with low relief panels, ibid., p. 214, no. 193. Another is decorated with an incised peony spray against a pearl-matting ground, ibid., p. 199, no. 180. These examples have no overhanging flange to the upper surface, as seen on the current example. However, the Palace Museum Collection also includes pillows of this form with an overhanging edge, decorated in dark brown slip on a pale ground, which bear the impressed mark of the Zhang Family workshop, ibid., pp. 171-3, nos. 155-6. Most significantly the Palace Museum has in its collection an elongated octagonal pillow, not only with overhanging edges, but also with vertical bamboo-style decorative appliques on the corners, similar to those on the current pillow. The Palace Museum pillow, illustrated ibid., p. 174, no. 157, is also decorated with a single peony spray similar to the pair of peony sprays on the upper surface of the current pillow. 

A comparable single peony spray, painted in dark slip with details incised through to the white slip beneath, can be seen on a Cizhou truncated meiping in the Kyusei Kaone Art Museum, on a similar vase in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery - Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, and on a fluted-mouth vase in the collection of the Buffalo Museum of Science, all illustrated by Yutaka Mino, Freedom of Clay and Brush through Seven Centuries in Northern China: Tz'u-chou Type Wares, 960-1600 A.D., Bloomington, Indiana, 1981, pp. 198-9, pl. 87; pp. 200-1, pl. 88; and pp. 204-5, pl. 90, respectively. Mino also illustrates a further Zhang Family-marked pillow of similar shape to the current example, with painted decoration of bird and bamboo, pp. 116-7, pl. 46.