A carved and moulded  'Longquan' celadon 'chrysanthemum' vase. Ming Dynasty. Photo Sotheby's

 robustly potted with a bulbous body rising to a waisted neck flaring to a wide everted rim, the body moulded and carved with chrysanthemum flowers borne on a continuous leafy scroll, above upright plantain lappets skirting the foot, carved with keyfret below the filet collaring the neck and upright plantain leaves above, the everted rim decorated with a band of chevrons and finished with raised bosses along the edge, all beneath a lustrous olive-green glaze pooling in the recesses; 33.7cm., 13 1/4 in. Estimate 100,000-120,000 GBP

NOTE: Longquan celadon vases of this distinctive form and design are rare; see one similarly decorated with a chrysanthemum scroll in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Yuan dai ciqi, Beijing, 1998, pl. 447. Compare vases of this form but carved with a peony scroll encircling the body, such as one carved with a keyfret around the neck, offered in our London rooms, 7th June 1994, lot 322; another with leafy scrolls on the neck, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29th May 2007, lot 1472; and a third carved with panels of fruit and flowers below two bands of flower scrolls on the neck, from the H.M. Knight collection, sold in these rooms, 12th May 1970, lot 37.

See vases of related form carved with alternating fruiting and flowering sprays within rectangular cartouches, such as one illustrated ibid., pl. 446, and again in Toji taikei, vol. 36, Tokyo, 1978, pl. 88,; and another in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the exhibition Age of the Great Khan. Pluralism in Chinese Art and Culture Under the Mongols, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2001, cat. no. IV-39.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. London | 09 Nov 2011 www.sothebys.com