A Longquan celadon tripod censer, Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279)

10 septembre 2015

A Longquan celadon tripod censer, Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279)

A Longquan celadon tripod censer, Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). Estimate 100,000 – $150,000 USD. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The compressed body is raised on three slightly splayed, conical supports and surmounted by a cylindrical neck rising to the flat, everted rim, with three narrow flanges beginning at a slight ridge on the shoulder and trailing down each leg. The censer is covered overall with a soft green glaze of even tone ending at the bottom of the legs to expose the pale grey ware. 5 3/8 in. (13.7 cm.) diam. box

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 21-22 May 1985, lot 76.
Simon Kwan Collection, Hong Kong.
Sotheby's London, 12 November 2003, lot 90.

Exhibited: Hong Kong Museum of Art, Song Ceramics from the Kwan Collection, 1994, cat. no. 56.

Notes: Influenced by the antiquarian taste of the day, this superb Southern Song tripod censer from the Longquan kilns assumes the form of a Shang- or Zhou-dynasty liding cauldron, a bronze vessel that in antiquity was used to boil millet for use in ceremonies honoring the spirits of deceased ancestors. In both early bronzes and later ceramics, the tri-lobed bodies of such liding-form vessels resolve themselves in a circular neck and lip, as seen in this fine censer. Most Bronze Age li and liding cauldrons are embellished with integrally cast taotie masks and other designs, just as most of them sport a pair of loop handles that rises vertically from the rim; by contrast, the related Longquan censers lack both handles and ornamentation, relying for aesthetic appeal on their crisply defined forms and exquisitely hued glazes. This censer’s short, cylindrical neck and everted lip, set at a slight angle, complement its organic, curvilinear body and short, conical legs. The slight ridge that distinguishes neck from shoulder and the vertical ribs that embellish the legs further articulate the form and subtly enliven its surfaces. (The ridge at top of the shoulder probably was molded, but the ribs on the legs likely were trailed in slip before application of the glaze slurry.) Appearing white because the classic bluish-green glaze thins in those areas, the low-relief ribs were perhaps inspired by the flanges that typically appear on the legs of archaic li and liding cauldrons. For a Bronze Age prototype of this Longquan censer, albeit an example with handles, see the 10th-century BC Liding of Duke Xi of the State of Lu, now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (47.230). For a 9th-to-8th century BC example with strongly everted lip and without handles, see the lifood vessel from the J.T. Tai Collection that sold at Sotheby’s, New York, 22 March 2011, lot 31.

Standard Southern Song Longquan wares typically feature thick, semi-opaque glazes of cool, bluish-green hue over dove-grey stoneware bodies. The jade-like glaze’s semi-opacity results from the presence of numerous tiny bubbles and particle inclusions. Because such glazes would obscure underglaze decoration, most Longquan celadons are unornamented; in addition, classic Longquan ware lacks craquelure. This censer’s glaze exemplifies the finest color associated with Longquan ware, a shade of bluish green best-known as kinuta, the name Japanese collectors conferred on it centuries ago. Such exquisitely colored glazes typically appear on vases with cylindrical body, steeply canted shoulder, long tubular neck, and wide everted lip; because that shape recalls a kinuta (Chinese, zhen)—a type of mallet used in dyeing cloth—this perfect color has come to be known as kinuta, or “mallet [-bottle] colored”. For an example of a “mallet vase” with kinuta glaze, see the example from the Xiling Collection now on loan to the Harvard Art Museums (38.2007).

A closely related but slightly larger Longquan censer is in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums (1997.122). Another related example was sold at Christie’s New York, 19 March 2009, lot 706.