Catalog (37)

A small double handled pottery bowl. It dates to the Machang phase of the Majiayao culture from present day Gansu province, 2300-2000 BCE. The buff-coloured body is thin and delicate, decorated in geometric patterns in fired-on black, brown and purple mineral-based pigments. Height: 8 cm;Diameter: 12.8 cm. Condition: Fine and intact with no repairs. Minor wear to the pigments and along the rim. Price: USD $450; CAD $585 (13% HST will be applied on all sales in Canada)

The ram is depicted at rest with its legs folded under its body. These animal figurines played an important part in Chinese burial practices. Very similar ram figurines, frequently with an early celadon yueyao glaze, are quite common in the Jin dynasties, a century or so later (there are nice examples in the New York Metropolitan Museum and the Shanghai Museum). This one appears to have been cold painted with a white slip, traces of which still remain. Length: 13.2 cm; width: 6.4 cm. Condi...

These Tang Dynasty (618-907CE) pottery figure groups were roughly moulded, but are full of vitality. This example has been cold painted with a white pigment over the grey low-fired pottery. Length: 14.6 cm; width: 7.9cm. Price: $400 USD; $530 CAD (HST of 13% will be applied to all sales in Canada). Condition: Intact and good with no repairs; typical wear to the pigment.

A Tang Dynasty (618-907CE) moulded pottery figure of a sleeping duck. It is roughly made but the immediacy of the potter’s observation catches the life of the bird. Price: $260 USD; $340 CAD (HST of 13% will be applied on all sales in Canada). Height: 5 cm; width:5 cm. Condition: Intact and good with no repairs.

A Tang Dynasty (618-907CE) moulded pottery figure of a boar, which, as with all these figures, captures the immediacy of the animal’s presence. Height: 6cm; length: 13cm. Condition: Intact and good with no repairs. Price: $400 USD; $530 CAD (HST of 13% will be applied on all sales in Canada).

A good example of the kinds of porcelaneous ware that were produced in large quantities at the ChangSha kilns at Tongguan in the eighth century. These have increased in value over the years and this is a very affordable piece. It is quite robustly potted and intended for the scholar’s table. The dark olive glaze is embellished with ten brown stripes. Diameter: 5.5 cm. Condition: good and intact; the glaze, though rough, retains much of its brightness. Price: $600 USD; $795 CAD (HST of ...

This is a small Ding porcelain saucer dish with an elegant, incised floral decoration covered inside and out with a cream glaze. As with almost all Dingyao bowls and plates, the rim has been kept clear of glaze because it was stacked on its rim in the kiln. The Dingyao glazes are generally thin, and must have been quite difficult to control; in this case, some dust seems to have intruded, which makes it slightly rough to the touch. Price: $2100 USD, $2800 CAD (13% HST is applied to all sales in ...

Every collector should have a few of these Ming dynasty pottery burial figures in their collection. They are such a good bargain and they tell us so much about Chinese culture. Whereas the Tang dynasty figures are always rather theatrical, these Ming(1368-1644) attendants are resolutely realistic. They remind me of the bored professional mourners one still sees occasionally at funerals today. These two musicians are very good examples, with their robes covered in a slightly iridescent crackled g...

This bowl with its slightly inturned rim, its controlled crackle and its greyish blue tone has characteristics of a late Song or Jin period product. But styles don’t end and begin conveniently with big political shifts and it may equally date from the Yuan dynasty, when there was a desire in the market for more Junyao bowls of a larger size. Whatever the exact time of its manufacture, it exhibits a fine balance of strength and good taste. Diameter: 18cm; Height: 8.3 cm. Condition: excelle...

This bowl exhibits all of the exuberance of taste that was characteristic of the Yuan dynasty. The Junyao potters who made this bowl have mastered the techniques of applying thick layers of glaze and allowing them to run with a daring freedom. Its a gorgeous thing to look at and to hold. Diameter: 19.2 cm Condition: Excellent with only minor wear. Ex IM Chait Auction Price: $2100 USD; $2700 CAD (HST of 13% will be applied on all sales in Canada).

The compressed globular body is raised on three thick, tapered legs and divided into three lobes loosely carved with a floral scroll, rising to an everted rim set with two rope-twist handles. It is covered overall with a glaze of sea-green tone, in places suffused with minute bubbles. There is a circular aperture in the base, a characteristic which is occasionally found in censers of this form, presumably used to clean out the interior. It dates from the fifteenth century. A larger censer of...

This Cultural Revolution porcelain plate from Jingdezhen is decorated with an original image by the artist Liu Haihe depicting a family as the centre of revolutionary commitment. It is very skillfully and carefully painted. This plate was created during the cultural revolution and it has a mark of “Jingdezhen Art Porcelain Factory Committee” at the base. Liu Haihe (1927-) was born in Jingdezhen. He first studied art (porcelain and painting) when he was 13. Before the establishment of the...

This attractive barrel-shaped jar has a crackled cream glaze with a second bright green enamelled overglaze. A bright apple green enamel had been used previously but never as an overall monochrome glaze on top of a crackled one until the Kangxi period (1661-1722). This jar has a Kangxi four-character mark but dates, like almost all four-character “Kangxi” pieces, from the late nineteenth century. Height: 11.5 cm; diameter: 13 cm. Condition: A couple of patches where the green enamel h...

Very little seems to have been written in English about these brown-glazed boxes with moulded lids. I bought this from a Japanese collector who believed it to be Vietnamese, since siimilar boxes were produced in Vietnam during the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries. But the clay is quite different and more gritty than the smooth grey paste used in Vietnamese ceramics. Apparently these Fujian boxes were exported to Southeast Asia and competed there with the Vietnamese variants. They are unusual and un...

These ear cups - erbei - originally coated with a green lead glaze, have developed a very attractive iridescence over many years of burial. This form, used for drinking wine, was made in a variety of different materials in the eastern Han Dynasty (25-220CE), bronze, jade, glass, lacquer, and, of course, ceramics. These two cups are moulded on the exterior with a wave pattern and a saw tooth band below the rim, imitating the decoration on a bronze model. Length: 11 and 11.5 cm. Condition: One ...

This Sancai plate dated to Liao - Jin period (1115-1125), features an incised Haitang flower with open leaves around it in the centre. Begonia is the type of flower that is commonly seen in other Liao Sancai wares. The flower is coloured white with a bright red pistil surrounded by a cream glazed circle. There is no restoration. Abrasion and some glaze flakes on the rim, which is normal considering the age and the nature of the glaze. Diameter: 12.5 cm Condition: Some glaze flakes on the rim,...

A polychrome Liao Sancai saucer dish incised with good luck cloud patterns. The dish is glazed in green, yellow and cream colours. Condition: Very good, no repair, no crack, minor glaze fritting on the side close to the rim.  Diameter: 12.00cm  Ex: I.M. Chait

This is a very nice example of a small Tang Dynasty (618-907CE) sancai pot for the scholar’s table at an affordable price. The glaze is finely crackled and has a slight iridescence. Diameter: 5cm. Condition: Intact and good with no repairs; normal wear for its age.