Lot 19. A Longquan celadon-glazed water sprinkler, Southern Song-Yuan Dynasty;  18cm (7in) high. Estimate £6,000 - 8,000 (€7,200 - 9,600). Sold for £ 23,750 (€ 26,657). Photo Bonhams.

The almost cylindrical body tapering to a narrow cylindrical neck encircled with a white flat ridge, the exterior and base all covered with a rich even green glaze thinly slightly at the extremities and continuing inside the vase, the foot ring unglazed.

Provenance: Lieutenant-Colonel W.B.R. Neave-Hill (1912-2000) and thence by descent.
(N-H Label).

Note: Lieutenant-Colonel Neave-Hill was an honorary secretary of the Oriental Ceramic Society for many years starting in 1967. As a member of the Selection Committee he helped to organise the following exhibitions: The Art of the Sung Dynasty, 1960, The Arts of the Ch'ing Dynasty, 1964, and The Ceramic Art of China, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1971. In 1975 he published Chinese Ceramics, London, with a foreword by Sir Harry Garner. He was a contributor to the Transactions of the Oriental Ceramics Society and has written various articles and reviews for Oriental Art and the Connoisseur. He was a client of Bluett's from 1953 until the 1970s. The Neave-Hill family lent six pieces to the 1971 Exhibition in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The shape of this sprinkler imitates the character 吉 ji, meaning lucky or auspicious, and the type is also sometimes referred to as a 大吉 daji vase, or 'great luck' vase. The form developed during the Southern Song dynasty and continued into the Yuan dynasty: for a Southern Song example, see The Jiurutang Collection, Hong Kong, 2003, no.209, and a related ridged vase also with a stand, dated to the Yuan dynasty, is illustrated in Celadons from the Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, no.166.

Bonhams. FINE CHINESE ART. London, New Bond Street, 15 May 2014