Lot 3311. A rare small Longquan celadon phoenix-tail vase, Southern Song-Yuan dynasty (1127-1368). Estimate HK$1,800,000 – HK$2,500,000 ($232,807 - $323,343). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

The body is decorated with a band of leafy peonies above a lower band of upright petals and below the concentric rings on the waisted neck, covered over all with a glaze of light sea-green color except for the unglazed foot rim. 9 3/4 in. (24.8 cm.) high, Japanese wood box

Provenance: A Japanese family collection, acquired in the 1930s and thence by descent within the family

Notes: One of the beauties of this vase is its thick, unctuous glaze, termed by Japanese connoisseurs as kinuta. Kinuta 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.

Christie's. THE IMPERIAL SALE / IMPORTANT CHINESE CERAMICS & WORKS OF ART, 1 June 2016, Convention Hall