A 'Longquan' celadon 'Ice'-crackled conical bowl, Southern Song Dynasty. Estimate  800,000 — 1,200,000 HKD. Unsold. Photo courtesy Sotheby's

well potted with shallow conical sides rising from a short foot to a flared rim, covered overall save for the footring with a luminous pale bluish-green glaze suffused with a dense network of 'ice'-crackles throughout pooling around the outer mouthrim and the extremities on the interior, the unglazed footring burnt brownish-orange in the firing; 13.6 cm., 5 3/4  in.

Provenance: Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Marvin Gordon, San Francisco.
J.J. Lally & Co., New York, 1990.
Collection of Dr. and Mrs. James York, Florida.

Exhibition: The Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Marvin L. Gordon, Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, J.J. Lally & Co., New York, 2009, cat. no. 24.

Notes: The pronounced shape of this Longquan bowl, springing with precision from its neatly finished circular foot, and the quality of its luminous bluish-green glaze, highlighted by the resonant network of 'ice'-crackles, ranks it amongst the finest examples in private hands. For a bowl of comparable quality in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelain of the Song Dynasty II, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 152, no. 137.

Compare also a closely related example in the Percival David collection, illustrated in the Illustrated Catalogue of Celadon Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, rev. ed. 1997, p. 29, no. 231. For a Longquan celadon conical bowl of comparable quality sold at auction, see the example sold in our New York rooms, 16th/17th September 2014, lot 112.

Sotheby's. Contemporary Literati: Curiosity, Hong Kong, 05 avr. 2015