A qingbai porcelain dish, Southern Song Period & qingbai glazed porcelain bowl, Song Dynasty

A rare qingbai porcelain dish with archaistic molded decoration. Southern Song Period. Photo Bonhams

Its shallow curving well molded with a center medallion of a flowers arranged in a container shaped as a bronze tripod and surrounded by further reserves of flower-filled vases and tripods below a key-fret band, the rim bound in metal and all exposed surfaces covered with a very pale blue-green glaze, 6 1/2in (16.5cm) diameter - Sold for US$10,980

Provenance:: purchased from Douglas J. K. Wright Ltd., Oriental Art, London on April 17th, 1979
ex-collection Lt. Col. and Mrs. W. B. R. Neave-Hill

For a qingbai bowl with similar archaistic bronze shapes used as flower vases and the same leiwen bend, see the 2010 exhibition catalogue of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Wenyi Shaoxing : Nan Song Yishu yu Wenhua (Dynastic Renaissance: Art and Culture of Southern Song), Qiwu Juan (Antiquities) section, cat. III.77, p. 208. See also Jan Wirgin, 'Song Ceramic Designs,' Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, No. 42 (1970), p. 63, pl. 27a (Kempe Collection) and pl. 27B (Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm) for two other qingbai bowls with similar bronze shapes used as flower vases.

A qingbai glazed porcelain bowl. Song Dynasty. Photo Bonhams

Its wide curving well displaying a combed design of two baby boys crawling amid dissolved lotus flowers and leaves beneath a very pale blue-green glaze covering all surfaces except the foot pad and portions of the shallow recessed base7 3/4in (19.5cm) diameter. Sold for US$1,952

Bonhams. Fine Asian Art, 21 Jun 2011, San Francisco www.bonhams.com