Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 19 march 2013
A rare 'Longquan' celadon vessel, Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279)
Lot 34. A rare 'Longquan' celadon vessel, Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). Diameter 5 1/4 in., 13.3 cm. Estimate 8,000 - 12,000 USD. Lot sold 32,500 USD. © Sotheby's
well-potted, of compressed globular form resting on a tall straight foot and rising to a broad neck and flared mouth, applied overall with a thick blue-green glaze with a satin texture suffused with bubbles, Japanese boxes (9).
Provenance: Kitayama Fine Arts, Tokyo, acquired in the 1970s.
Note: Early Longquan celadons of this form are very rare, conventionally known as zhadou (leys jar) or xianglu (censer).
The coherence of the potting, with the dynamic wide-flaring mouth, is remarkable, and the glaze retains the pale bluish tints in the celadon that are characteristic of Southern Song examples. A similar example but of smaller sizewas sold in these rooms 31st March 2005, lot 33.
Another published example of this form in the Zhejiang Provincial Museum is illustrated in Longquan Celadon of China, Hangzhou, 1998, pl. 70. Another discovered among a group of Song ceramics excavated at Lueyang, Shaanxi province, is illustrated in Wenwu, 1976, no. 11, pl. 6, fig. 5; and a third is included in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl. 474. A guan-type Longquan celadon zhadou was sold in our London rooms, 12th December 1989, lot 263, and another is illustrated by Regina Krahl, Yuegutang. A Collection of Chinese Ceramics in Berlin, Berlin, 2000, no. 226, of very similar proportions to the present lot, but only half the size. Fragments of these smaller zhadou recovered from kiln sites at Dayao, Longquan county, Zhejiang province, are illustrated in Longquan qingci yanjiu, Beijing, 1989, pl. 6, fig. 5, with a line drawing, p. 57, fig. 11 (2). The latter examples appear to have much greener and slightly inferior crackled glazes.