Lot 32. A rare 'Beishoku Guanyao' vase, Southern Song dynasty; 21.5cm., 8 1/2 in. Estimate 500,000 — 700,000 GBP. Lot sold 1,085,000 GBP. Photo courtesy Sotheby's
the compressed globular body supported on a straight foot, gracefully rising to a gently tapering cylindrical neck and an everted rim, covered overall in beige glaze suffused with a russet-brown crackle, the footring unglazed revealing the buff-coloured body, Japanese wood box. Quantité: 2
Provenance: Mayuyama Ryūsendō, Tokyo
Exhibition: Sō ji meihin ten [Exhibition of Sung Ceramics Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Japan Ceramic Society], Tokyo, 1955, cat. no. 33.
Sō, Korai, Momoyama ki tōji hyakusen ten [Selected One Hundred Ceramics of Song, Goryeo and Momoyama Dynasty], Tokyo, 1960, cat. no. 24.
Chūgoku Sō Gen bijutsu ten [Chinese Art of the Sung and Yuan Periods], Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 1961, cat. no. 191.
Seiji meihin ten [Exhibition of the Great Works of Celadon], Japan Ceramic Society, Tokyo, 1963, cat. no. 5.
Tō Sō meitō ten [Exhibition of Tang-Song Ceramics], Japan Ceramic Society, Tokyo, 1964, cat. no. 87.
Chūgoku tōji meiho ten [Exhibition of the Great Works of Chinese Ceramics], The Gotoh Museum, Tokyo, 1966.
Sō Gen no bijutsu [The Art of Song and Yuan], Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Osaka, 1978, cat. no. 1-18.
Sō ji – Shinpin to yobareta yakimono [Song Ceramics], Tobu Museum of Art, Tokyo/ The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka/ Hagi Uragami Museum, Hagi, 1999, cat. no. 64.
Chūgoku tōji bi wo miru kokoro [Chinese Ceramics, Enlightening through Beauty], Sen-oku Hakuko Kan Bunkan, Tokyo, 2006, cat. no. 32.
Nan Sō no seiji sora wo utsusu utsuwa [Heavenly Blue: Southern Song Celadons], Nezu Museum, Tokyo, 2010, cat. no. 59.
Seiji no ima –Uketugareta waza to bi Nan Sō kara gendai made [Celadon Now: Techniques and Beauty Handed Down from Southern Song to Today], Tokyo, 2014, cat. no. I - 02.
Bibliography: Seiichi Okuda, Sakutarō Tanaka, Fukosai Hirota, Haruzo Hayashi (eds), Chūgoku no tōji [Chinese Ceramics], Tokyo, 1955, pl. 180.
Fujiō Koyama,Tōki zenshū. Tō Sō no seiji [The Complete Works of Ceramics: Celadon of Tang to Song Dynasty], Tokyo, 1960, pl. 48.
Fujiō Koyama, ed., Sekai tōji zenshū. Sō hen, vol. 10, Tokyo, 1961, pl. 80.
Ryūsen Shūhō. Sōgyō shichijū shūnen kinen/Mayuyama: Seventy Years, Tokyo, 1976, vol. 1, pl. 461.
Gakuji Hasebe, Sekai tōji zenshū. Sō [The Complete Works of World Ceramics: Song], Tokyo, 1977, pl. 69.
Fujiō Koyama, Tōji taikei. Seiji [The Outline of Ceramics: Celadon], Tokyo, 1978, pl. 17.
Beishoku seiji/Beishoku Celadon, The Bulletin of the Chinese Ceramic Study Association of Tokiwayama Bunko Foundation, vol. 1, Tokyo, 2008, pls 1b, 2 right, 3, and fig. 1 right.
Notes: The companion vase in to the the Tokiwayama Bunko, Kamakura,which have the same form and a very similar glaze but with a touch of green on one side; reveals the direct connection to the more greenish guan ware
Vase, Beishoku Celadon, Guanyao, H: 21.6cm. Southern Song Dynasty, 12-13th century. No.21016. The Tokiwayama Bunko Foundation ©Tokiwayama Bunko Foundation
And a very similar vase from the Eumorforpoulos Collection, now in the British Museum, London, but fired the more classic bluish green would seem to come from the same kiln.
Vase, Guan, Southern Song Dynasty, 12-13th century. Ex-Eumorforpoulos Collection, British Museum, London. © The Trustees of the British Museum
Sotheby's. The Soul of Japanese Aesthetics – The Tsuneichi Inoue Collection, Londres, 13 mai 2015, 10:00 AM
