Lot 41. A rare Guan-type basin-shaped washer, Song dynasty (960-1279). Diameter 16,3 cm. Price realised EUR 239,400 (Estimate EUR 10,000 – EUR 15,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.

Quelques restaurations Kintsugi à l'or sur la bordure.

Note: A similarly proportioned Longquan brush washer from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is featured in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum - Lung-ch’üan Ware of the Sung Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1962, p. 61, pls. 18 & 18a. Another Longquan basin brush washer from the Qing Court Collection is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 33 - Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), Hong Kong, 1996, p. 145, no. 130.

Lot 41. A blue-glazed Junyao conical bowl, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127). Diameter 12.4 cm. Price realised EUR 94,500 (Estimate EUR 10,000 – EUR 15,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.

Provenance: Previously from an American private collection.

Lot 45. A Longquan celagon 'Twin fish' washer, Song-Yuan dynasty (960-1279). Diameter 13.2 cm, wooden box. Price realised EUR 6,300 (Estimate EUR 6,000 – EUR 8,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.

Provenance: Collection of Dr. Onodera Naosuke (1883-1968, Director of Medical College in Kyushu Imperial University), by repute.
Sen Shu Tey, Tokyo.
Collection of Dr. Hiroshi Horiuchi.

Exhibited: On loan: Fukuoka, Kyushu National Museum, August 2019-June 2023.

Note: Paired fish symbolize fertility and connubial bliss, and they are also one of the Eight Buddhist symbols. Dishes of this type, known as 'twin fish' dishes, were popular products of the Longquan kilns during the late Southern Song to early Ming period. Similar dishes have been recovered from Southern Song kilns in the Longquan region, such as the bowl unearthed at Jincun, illustrated in Longquan Qingci Yanjiu, Beijing, 1989, pl. 36:3. Longquan molded fish dishes of this type were recovered from the cargo of a trading vessel that sank off the coast of Sinan, South Korea, in the 1320s, and were included in the Special Exhibition of Cultural Relics Found off the Sinan Coast, National Museum of Korea, Seoul, 1977, pl. 28. Other examples are in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in Illustrated Catalogue of Sung Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, Lung-chu'än Ware, Ko Ware and other Wares, Taipei, 1974, pl. 26, and in the Percival David Foundation, included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Celadon Wares, rev. ed., London, 1997, p. 27, no. 265.

Lot 45. A Longquan celadon openwork bottle vase, Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Height 26?5 cm, wooden box. Price realised EUR 28,980 (Estimate EUR 8,000 – EUR 12,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.

Provenance: Offered at Christie's Hong Kong, The Imperial Sale: Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2016, lot 3314.

Christie's. Art d’Asie, Paris, 11 December 2024