17. R1199

£28,000

Description

Chinese pottery sancai, three-colour glazed circular cosmetic box and cover, he, with gently domed cover, flat sides and curved base, the unglazed base revealing the buff-coloured body, the interior of the box base with traces of clear glaze turning iridescent.

3 ½ inches, 8.9 cm diameter.

Tang dynasty, Gongxian kilns, Henan Province, 7th – 8th century.

 

Provenance & Additional Information

  • From the personal collection of Susan Chen.
  • From the Sze Yuan Tang Collection.
  • Included by Littleton & Hennessy and published in their exhibition catalogue, The Splendour of Sancai, The Sze Yuan Tang Collection, The European Fine Art Fair, Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre, The Netherlands, March 2012, no. 25.
  • Sold by Sotheby’s London in their auction of Important Chinese Art, 4th November 2020, lot 227.
  • Included by Marchant in their exhibition of Chinese Ceramics Tang to Song, no. 17, pp. 48-49.
  • A similar box is in the British Museum, of identical size in amber and green glaze, acquired from the collection of George Eumorfopoulos in 1936, collection 1936,1012.116.a; another from the MacDonald Collection, in the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art, University of Durham, is illustrated by William Watson in Tang and Liao Ceramics, no. 186, p. 170.
  • The dating of this piece is consistent with the result of a thermoluminescence test, Oxford Authentication , no. C112a38.

Condition

Three small inner rim chips restored and six tiny flakes retouched to the cover, minute nicks/flakes to the rims of the cover and the box, one tiny hole for thermoluminescence test to the base.

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