Southern Song dynasty Guan type celadon lobes brush washer, £120,000 at Keys in Aylsham.
The small 12th century stoneware dish took 15 minutes to sell at Keys in Aylsham on July 12-13, rising from its estimate of £500-600 in 237 bidding increments. With 22% buyer’s premium added, the winning bidder based in Italy will pay close to £150,000.
The object of desire for a competing phalanx of online, room and phone bidders from China, Malaysia, UK and continental Europe was a 6in (15cm) mallow flower form dish with a translucent blue-grey glaze permeated by a network of crazing.
Although marred by a star crack to the well, it is thought to be a Guan six-lobed brush washer from the Southern Song (1127-1279) period.
Guan ware was the Southern Song’s version of Ru wares, the near mythical duck-egg blue ‘official ware’ made for the Northern Song (960–1127) court in the Baofeng kilns in Henan province around 1100AD.
After retreating south to a new capital at Lin'an (modern day Hangzhou), the Song seemingly rebuilt its pottery making capabilities from scratch, using different raw materials and new kilns – but the same level of technological know-how – to create its own brand of understated, crackle-glazed monochrome stonewares.
Both Ru and Guan wares were much imitated from the Yuan period onwards and are equally revered. However, while the number of Ru pieces extant is estimated to be under 100, Hangzhou Guan wares are more numerous and varied, surviving in a larger variety of forms, body types and glaze tones.
This piece came from a Norfolk estate and was among a number of pieces acquired by a family member in Hong Kong in the 1930s.
