A large 'mise' 'Yue' celadon lobed bowl, Tang / Five dynasties | 唐 / 五代 越窰青釉花式大盌

‘Mise’ (‘secret color’) porcelains were produced at the Yue kilns from the late Tang dynasty. The term was documented in a stone tablet listing the inventory in the underground chamber of the Famen Pagoda in Shanxi province, where it noted that there were seven ‘mise’ porcelain bowls.

Other Yue-type bowls of this form found in museum collections include one in the British Museum, London illustrated in Stacey Pierson, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art: A Guide to the Collection, London, 2002, pl. 6; another in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London in Rose Kerr, Song Dynasty Ceramics, London, 2004, pls 8 and 8a and one in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, illustrated in Mary Tregear, Catalogue of Chinese Greenware in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1976, pl. 200. Late Tang dynasty related examples with less prominent quatrilobe form were recovered from the Belitung wreck dated to 825-850 and illustrated in Shipwrecked, Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds, ed. Regina Krahl, John Guy, Julian Raby, Singapore, 2010, pls 251-253 where the authors note that Yue stonewares were held in high regard during the late Tang dynasty, rivaled only by Xing wares and that 'quality control was strict' and therefore production limited, ibid. p. 69. 

For other examples of Yue-type ‘mise’ porcelain at auction, see a circular box and cover sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 31st May 2017, lot 219.