A SanCai "Lotus-Bloom" Lobed Oval Dish, Liao Dynasty, the shallow dish with a flat amber-glazed rim decorated with a floral scroll, with three lotus blooms on the interior painted in dark green and amber on a straw-coloured incised ground, the unglazed base exposing the grey-buff ware, , 26cm wide, Provenance:: John Sparks Ltd., London (label). The Sze Yuan Tang collection, acquired in Hong Kong circa 1980s-1990s . [Bracket-lobed dishes such as this one were constructed over moulds with decorative motifs incorporated on it. Several related examples include: one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelain of the Song Dynasty I, Hong Kong, 1996, p.281, no.255; another decorated on the centre with a leafy lotus bloom in the Tokyo National Museum, illustrated by Margaret Medley, Tang Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1981, p.138, no.137; and a pair illustrated in Song Ceramics from the Kwan Collection, Hong Kong, 1994, pp.404-407, no.184 and 185..]