Lot 2862. A Jian tea bowl, Song dynasty (960-1279); 12 cm diam., Japanese wood box. Price realised HKD 403,200 (Estimate HKD 150,000 – HKD 250,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023.

Provenance: A Japanese private collection, Tokyo.

Note: The underside of the cover of the Japanese wood box accompanying the present lot bears an inscription signed by Yumyosai (1852 - 1917), the twelfth head of the Urasanke school of Japanese tea ceremony.

Lot 2866. A Guan-type Longquan tripod censer, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); 12 cm diam., lacquer stand, Japanese wood boxes. Price realised HKD 1,890,000 (Estimate HKD 1,500,000 – HKD 2,000,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023.

Provenance: Cunliffe Collection, no. KO5
Sold at Bonhams London, The Cunliffe Collection: Chinese Ceramics and Jade Carvings, 11 November 2002, lot 32
Sen Shu Tey, Tokyo
Sold at Christie’s New York, The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics: The Linyushanren Collection, Part II, 15 September 2016, lot 718.

Literature: Sen Shu Tey, The Collection of Chinese Art - Special Exhibition ‘Run Through 10 Years’, Tokyo, 2006, p. 60, no. 73
Christie's, The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramic: An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 2012, p. 181, no. 78.

Exhibited: On loan to the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, 1991-2002, no. NMWA(L)765
Sen Shu Tey, The Collection of Chinese Art - Special Exhibition ‘Run Through 10 Years’, Tokyo, 2006
Christie's, The Classical Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 22 to 27 November 2012; New York, 15 to 20 March 2013; London, 10 to 14 May 2013.

Lot 2897. A fine and rare Ding black-glazed cup stand, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 11 cm diam., Japanese wood box. Price realised HKD 1,638,000 (Estimate HKD 800,000 – HKD 1,200,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023.

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby’s New York, 23 March 2004, lot 614.

Note: Ding cup stands of this form are more commonly found in persimmon glaze, see two examples illustrated in Chayun mingshi – gugong chahua, Taipei, 2002, p. 47, nos. 24-25, the former in the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum, cut with a similar foliate rim as the present example, the later with a round rim in the collection of Dr. and Mrs. Gardan.

Stands of this type were made to support tea cups or bowls to prevent burning from direct contact. They were an indispensable part of the tea-drinking culture popular among the Song elites, as can be seen in the painting Literary Gathering, attributed to Emperor Huizong (1082-1135), where cup stands of this form covered in either a dark glaze or made of lacquer are depicted.

Lot 2899. A fine Ding white-glazed bowl, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 13.1 cm diam. Price realised HKD 201,600 (Estimate HKD 200,000 – HKD 300,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Chang Wei-Hwa & Company, Taipei, 1988.

Lot 2900. A large carved Ding white-glazed bowl, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 13.1 cm diam. Price realised HKD 201,600 (Estimate HKD 200,000 – HKD 300,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Chang Wei-Hwa & Company, Taipei, 1988.

Lot 2902. A carved Linru 'deer' stem dish, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 19.7 cm diam. Price realised HKD 189,000 (Estimate HKD 150,000 – HKD 250,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Chang Wei-Hwa & Company, Taipei, 1988.

Lot 2903. A Cizhou sgraffito 'peony' meiping, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 31.6 cm high, box. Price realised HKD 1,764,000 (Estimate HKD 800,000 – HKD 1,200,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Chang Wei-Hwa & Company, Taipei, 1988.

Lot 2906. A rare Guan-type Longquan celadon bracket rim dish, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); 18.5 cm diam, box. Price realised HKD 3,780,000 (Estimate HKD 1,000,000 – HKD 1,500,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 3 November 1998, lot 909.

Note: The current dish is not only distinguished by its beautiful crackle-suffused glaze that is reminiscent of some of the finest Guan glazes, but also by its rare and elegant floral shape. Such characteristic is typical for ceramics of this period, which are often inspired by nature elements in both form and decoration. Compare to a similarly shaped Longquan dish without crackles in the collection of Percival David Foundation, see S. Pierson, Illustrated in Catalogue of Celadon Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1997, p.43, no. 264; and another similar Longquan celadon Guan-type dish with more rounded outlines, formerly in The J. M. Hu (1991-1995), Zande Lou Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 25 March 2022, lot 1030.

Lot 2907. A Longquan celadon 'bamboo-neck' vase, xianwenping, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); 15.6 cm high, box. Price realised HKD 529,200 (Estimate HKD 300,000 – HKD 500,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 3 November 1998, lot 910.

Note: This elegant vessel is admired for both of its form and the beautiful glaze; the raised encircling lines on the neck give one of its Chinese names, xianwenping, 'vase with bow-string decoration'. For two larger Longquan bottle vases with the same profile and decoration, see one in the Tokyo Nezu Museum, illustrated by G. St. G. M. Gompertz, Chinese Celadon Wares, London, 1980, p. 153, pl. 75a; the other in the Hakone Art Museum, see Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. I, Tokyo, 1976, p.164, fig. 476. Another very similar Longquan bottle vase with a wider mouth is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), Hong Kong, 1996, p. 115, no. 103.

Vases of this form are potted with two different types of mouth rim, either a wide dish-shaped mouth or a slighted inverted galleried rim. The present vase falls into the latter category. Compare with a vase in the Nezu Museum in Tokyo illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 12, Tokyo, 1977, no. 81, and another in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art in London published in M. Medley's Illustrated Catalogue of Celadon Wares, London, 1977, pl. V, no. 50.

These two types of mouth rims were contemporaneous, as evidenced by the finds from a Southern Song hoard excavated at Jinyucun, Suining City, Sichuan province in 1991, and from Longquan kilns sites. Vases from the former site are published in Newly Discovered Southern Song Ceramics - A Thirteenth-Century "Time Capsule", Japan, 1998, pp. 14-16, nos. 2-4, and from the latter in Longquan Qingci Yanjiu, Beijing, 1989, pl. 41, fig. 1.

These vases were also among the cargo of a wreck dating to 1323 which sunk off the Sinan coast of Korea on its way to Japan. See National Museum of Korea, Sinan Wreck Exhibition, Seoul, 1977, no. 15. Compare also the slightly larger example (16.8 cm. high) of the same type, sold at Christie’s New York, 18 March 2016, lot 1536, for USD 93,750.

Lot 2908. A carved Qingbai shallow bowl, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); 14 cm diam., box. Price realised HKD 113,400 (Estimate HKD 30,000 – HKD 50,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Chang Wei-Hwa & Company, Taipei, 1988.

Lot 2909. A Guan-type floral-form washer, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); 17 cm wide. Price realised HKD 352,800 (Estimate HKD 150,000 – HKD 250,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Lot 2910. A carved Qingbai meiping and a cover, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); 32.5 cm high. Price realised HKD 10,176,000 (Estimate HKD 1,200,000 – HKD 1,800,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Collection of Dikran Khan Kélékian (1867-1951)
Sold at Sotheby’s New York, 22 March 1999, lot 370.

Literature: John Getz, The Kélékian Collection of Ancient Chinese Potteries, Chicago, 1917, no. 47.

Note: Starting from the early Northern Song dynasty, kilns at Jingdezhen achieved success in producing very fine white-bodied porcelain covered with an illuminous glaze of icy blue tinge, earning the name qingbai, 'blue white', or yingqing, 'shadow blue'. The shape and decorations on qingbai wares were often fashioned after contemporaneous silver wares, and the current meiping is no exception. A silver meiping with ruyi-shaped scrolls, excavated in a Southern Song hoard in Sichuan, for example, was possibly an inspiration for the design of the current vase. The silver vase is illustrated in S. Kwan, 'Tixi wenyang fenqi chuyi', Proceedings of Conference on Ancient Chinese Lacquer, Hong Kong, 2012, p. 65, fig. 11.

Qingbai vases of similar shape and design are in the collection of important museums and institutions.
Compare with a similar example (31.4 cm.) of rounder profile in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, no. 11. Another qingbai meiping of slightly different proportion is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelain of the Song Dynasty, part II, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 167, which is very similar to the example (32.1 cm.) sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 May 2014, lot 3233. A smaller one (24.2 cm.) in the British Museum, London, is illustrated in The World’s Greatest Collections, Oriental Ceramics, vol. 5, 1981, no. 70. Compare also with a smaller meiping and cover (22.5 cm.) without carved decoration from the Songde Tang Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 3 December 2021, lot 2812.

Lot 2866. A rare large green Jun bowl, Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234); 12 cm diam., lacquer stand, Japanese wood boxes. Price realised HKD 126,000 (Estimate HKD 100,000 – HKD 150,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023.

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby's London, 12 December 1978, lot 196
The Plesch Collection, no. CH22
Sold at Christie's London, 3 November 2009, lot 184.

Literature: John Ayers, Margaret Medley, Nigel Wood, Iron in the Fire, London 1988, no. 26, p. 45.

Exhibited: Iron in the Fire: the Chinese Potters' Exploration of Iron Oxide Glazes, The Ashmolean Museum of Art, Oxford, 10 May - 19 June 1988, no. 26.

Lot 2901. A small black-glazed 'oil-spot' bowl, Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234); 10.5 cm diam., box. Price realised HKD 252,000 (Estimate HKD 120,000 – HKD 180,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023.

Provenance: Chang Wei-Hwa & Company, Taipei, 1988.

Christie's. IMPORTANT CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, Hong Kong, 30 november 2023