A Longquan celadon pear-shaped vase, yuhuchunping, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). Estimate $8,000 – $12,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015.

The body is carved with two lotus sprays above the bow-string band and a band of upright petals rising from the slightly spreading foot. The waisted neck is encircled by a double bow-string band below a band of upright leaves interrupted by a pair of dragon-fish handles suspending large stationary rings from their tails. The vase is covered in a glaze of olive-green color. 8 ½ in. (20.6 cm.) high, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Private collection, Japan, since the late 19th-early 20th century.

Notes: Compare the vase illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, Tokyo, 1981, vol. 13, p. 186, no. 169, which has a band of petals below foliate decoration on a pear-shaped body and stationary rings pendent from mask handles, but the neck is far taller, with a trumpet mouth, and the foliate scroll is in slip under the glaze and not carved.

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 17 - 18 September 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza