Lot 5010. A Yue celadon-glazed tea bowl, Tang-Five dynastie (618-960); 14.9 cm, Japanese wood box. Lot sold: 50,400 HKD (Estimate: 40,000 - 60,000 HKD). © Sotheby's 2021

Provenance: Mayuyama & Co. Ltd, Tokyo, Japan.

Note: Such Yue celadon tea bowls of this type are usually conical in shape, with a bi-disc form shaped foot. It was noted in Luk Yu's Cha Jing (Classic of Tea) that 'Bowls produced from Yue Zhou ranked high', and 'The celadon of the Yue stoneware contrasts with the green-coloured tea'. Yue celadon tea bowls have been well revered since the beginning of the Chinese tea culture. Compare a closely related example from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Lü Chenglong (ed.), Ceramics Gallery of the Palace Museum Vol. I The Neolithic Period to Five Dynasties, Beijing, 2021, pl. 119.

Sotheby's. Echoes of Fragrance – Evolution of Tea Culture from the Tang to the Qing Dynasties, Hong Kong, 16 December 2021