HONG KONG – A nearly 900-year-old porcelain Song dynasty bowl smashed the world auction record for Chinese ceramics on Tuesday, selling for $37.68 million…
HONG KONG – A nearly 900-year-old porcelain Song dynasty bowl smashed the world auction record for Chinese ceramics on Tuesday, selling for $37.68 million at a Sotheby’s sale in Hong Kong.
The small, blue-green item broke the previous record, also set in a sale in Hong Kong, when a 500-year-old imperial “chicken” cup from the Ming dynasty Chenghua period sold for $36.0 million in 2014, Sotheby’s said.
The 5-inch bowl, used to wash brushes, was fired in the famed Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) kilns in Ruzhou, and was sold to an anonymous buyer after a 20-minute bidding battle.
Such “Ru guanyao” wares — known for their intense blue-green glaze and “ice-crackle” pattern — are extremely rare because the kiln in China’s central Henan province had a brief production run of only around two decades.
