March 2013 – A ‘Jun’ ware bottle vase – This bottle vase was formerly in the ‘Ingram Family Collection’, a collection numbering thousands of Chinese and Japanese works of art, mainly early bronzes, ceramics and jades. In 1956 Sir Herbert Ingram presented a large part of his collection to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The Jun-ware bottle vase has been exhibited at the ‘Sung Dynasty Wares, Chun and Brown Glazes’ exhibition of the Oriental Ceramic Society, London in 1952.

One of the highlights of the ‘Ingram Family Collection’, the Jun ‘yao’ bottle-shaped vase is an exceptionally rare and excellent example of the level of craftsmanship developed in the late Northern Song Dynasty. The funnel shaped, slender neck has evolved from one of the earliest examples currently in the Tokyo National Museum, which shows a gently expanded lip. The next stage in the development of Jun-ware bottle vases saw copper pigment added to the glaze, as can be seen in the vase in the collection of the Percival David Foundation (PDF 92), on display at the British Museum.

This exceptional piece was sold at TEFAF 2013 by Littleton & Hennessy Asian Art to a Chinese art collector.