Lot 3044. A small guan-type vase, hu, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368); 10.5 cm, 4 1/8  in. Estimate 4,000,000 - 6,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 6,640,000 HKD. Photo:  Sotheby's

delicately potted, of archaic bronze form, the pear-shaped body of rounded rectangular section subtly moulded with a raised panel on each side, rising from a short slightly splayed foot to a quatrefoil rim set with a pair of small lug handles, applied overall with a very smooth caesious-coloured glaze finely streaked with a random matrix of dark grey and pale brown crackles, draining to a dark grey tone around the rim and lugs and stopping neatly above the foot revealing the greyish-brown body, the footring pierced on the two narrow sides, the interior and the recessed base glazed.

PROVENANCE: Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Clark, no. 717.
Sotheby’s London, 25th March 1975, lot 111.
Mayuyama & Co. Ltd., Tokyo.

EXHIBITED: Ju and Kuan Wares, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1952, no. 66.
L’Art de la Chine des Song, Ville de Paris, Musée Cernuschi, Paris, 1956, cat. no. 90.

NOTE: The  present vase with its pleasing proportions, thick glaze and impressive provenance is amongst the finest early individual pieces made after the famous crackled ‘Guan’ wares of the 13th century. For the possible inspiration see a finely potted contemporaneous vase of related form, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s Special Exhibition of Sung Dynasty Kuan Ware, Taipei, 1989, cat. no. 12; and another earlier and larger ‘Guan’ vase with a more rounded body illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji [The complete works of Chinese ceramics], vol. 8, Shanghai, 1999, pl. 17, in the Hangzhou Nansong Guanyao Bowuguan (Hangzhou Southern Song Dynasty Guan Kiln Museum).

Compare also a vase from the collection of Eugene Bernat sold in our New York rooms, 7th November 1980, lot 135; another, sold in our London rooms, 13th June 1989, lot 180; and a third, attributed to the Ming period, sold in these rooms, 15th May 1990, lot 11.

The shape of this vase is based on ritual bronze prototypes, which were excavated and had caught the interest of collectors from the Song period.  For example, the Song emperor Huizong (r. 1101-25) was a keen collector of both bronzes and jades and commissioned ceramic pieces to be made inspired by archaic bronze ritual vessels in his collection. He even ordered the production of an illustrated catalogue of his artefacts titled Bogu tulu [Illustrated Collection of Antiquities]. Interest in archaism remained a strong feature of Chinese connoisseurship throughout the Yuan and Ming periods, reaching its peak during the Qing dynasty under the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. 

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. Hong Kong | 08 avr. 2013