Lot 2807. A rare Longquan celadon long-necked vase, Southern Song Dynasty, 13th Century;  10 1/8 in. (25.6 cm.) high. Estimate HK$900,000 – HK$1,200,000 ($116,672 - $155,563). Price realised HKD 2,320,000. © Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The vase is well potted with a slightly compressed body rising to a tall straight neck below a lipped rim, supported on a tall tapering foot. It is covered overall with an even glaze of pale bluish-green tone with the exception of the foot ring, Japanese wood box

Provenance: Youichi Nakajima, owner of Mitochu Tea Ceremony Shop, Nihonbashi, Tokyo, circa 1950s-1960s

Literature: The Kuboso Memorial Museum of Arts, Sensei Bansei to Ryusenyo no Seiji (Sensei BanseI Longquan Celadon), Osaka, 1996, no. 21 
Christie's, The Classical Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 2012, pp. 172-173, no. 72

Exhibited: The Kuboso Memorial Museum of Arts, Sensei Bansei to Ryusenyo no Seiji (Sensei BanseI Longquan Celadon), Izumi, 5 October to 24 November 1996, Catalogue, no. 21 
Christie's, The Classical Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 22 to 27 November 2012; New York, 15 to 20 March 2013; London, 10 to 14 May 2013, Catalogue, no. 72

Note: This superb celadon vase embodies the rstrained elegance of Song dynasty. One of the beauties of this vase is its thick, unctuous glaze, reminiscent of jade. The glaze on the current vase also displays the ideal soft bluish-green colour, which was difficult for potters to achieve, but has always been greatly admired by connoisseurs. This particularly fine glaze type is often known by the Japanese name 'kinuta', which in fact is the term for a mallet, but which refers to Longquan mallet-shaped vases, which were imported into Japan in the Southern Song (AD 1127-1279) and Yuan (AD 1279-1368) dynasties, and became associated with the fine Longquan glaze. Another interpretation of the connection between ‘kinuta’ and Longquan celadon refers to the famous Japanese tea master Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591) who thought the sounds of Longquan glaze’s crackling is similar to the sounds of paper mallet knocking the pulp, and therefore named the Longquan wares ‘kinuta celadon’, see Xie Mingliang, Taoci shouji (Essays on Ceramics), Taipei, 2008, p.12.

A similar Longquan vase of lipped rim but has a more compressed body, included in the exhibition catalogue,Heavenly Blue: Southern Song Celadons, Tokyo, 2010, p. 43, fig. 13, measuring 21.7 cm. high. An example also of lipped rim but has a more curved silhouette is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics: the World’s Great Collections, vol. 12: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1982, monochrome plates, no. 52, measuring 21.3cm. high. A pair of Longquan long-necked vase of similar form and proportion but with straight neck were excavated from a Southern Song hoard in Jinyucun, Suining city, Sichuan province, illustrated in Heavenly Blue: Southern Song Celadons, op. cit., p. 140, fig. 15-19. Two more examples with straight mouth are in the Tokugawa Art Museum and Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, illustrated in Heavenly Blue: Southern Song Celadons, op. cit.,p. 42, figs. 11-12. Compare also three long-necked vases with lipped rim, plausibly made in Guan kilns in Hangzhou: one covered with crackled celadon glaze is in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Asahi Shimbun, Song Ceramics, Tokyo, 1999, p. 100, no. 63; two covered with crackled yellowish glaze, known as beishoku celadon, illustrated in Heavenly Blue: Southern Song Celadons, op. cit., p. 82-83, figs. 58-59. Whether these three examples are products of Guan ware or Longquan ware is still subject to debate, however, there is no doubt that the present form was made to conform with contemporary court taste. Some scholars also suggested that when needed, the Longquan kilns also produced high-quality wares for the court in Hangzhou.

Christie's. THE CLASSIC AGE OF CHINESE CERAMICS - THE LINYUSHANREN COLLECTION, PART I, 2 December 2015, Convention Hall