JIN DYNASTY, 12TH-13TH CENTURY

While Jun water containers of this elegant form, apparently inspired by a lotus bud, are well known, the present example is distinguished by its unusually robust, rounded shape and the attractive horizontal cloud of dark bluish purple gracing the exterior. Jun vessels of this distinctive form are well represented in public and private collections, including some with their original covers, such as the example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 32 - Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong, 1996, p. 242, no. 218, and one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated by S. Valenstein, Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, rev. ed. 1989, p. 87, no. 79. Other similar Jun jars are illustrated by J. Ayers, Baur Collection, Geneva, 1968, vol. I, no. A30; the Eumorfopoulos Collection, Catalogue, London, 1926, vol. II, pl. XXVI, no. B88; W. Hochstadter, Early Chinese Ceramics in the Buffalo Museum of Science, no. 62; in the exhibition of the Hong Kong Kau Chi Society, Ancient Chinese Ceramics, 1981, no. 25; and in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 10, Tokyo, 1980, no. 167. See, also, the two jars illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. I, London, 1994, p. 223, nos. 392 and 293; the single jar included in the exhibition, Chinese Art from the Reach Family Collection, Eskenazi, Ltd., London, 8 - 22 December 1989, no. 23; and the example from the Robert Chang Collection, sold in our New York rooms, 21 March 2002, lot 150.