the baluster body rising from a stepped foot to a tall waisted neck flaring at the rim, crisply molded to the exterior with undulating peony scrolls above pointed upright lappets, the neck with three single peony sprays below the horizontally ribbed trumpet mouth, covered overall in a rich unctuous sea-green glaze stopping neatly around the foot ring, Japanese wood box (3). Height 10 7/8  in., 27.7 cm.

Provenance: Collection of Albert Armand Pouyanne (1873-1932).

Notes: This vase is notable for the crisp and naturalistic rendering of the peonies which elegantly scroll around the body of the vase, and for the luminescence of the glaze.  A larger vase of this type in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated inLongquan qingci, Beijing, 1966, pl. 41; and two similar vases with their mouths reduced, in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, are published in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, vol. 1, London, 1986, nos 204 and 205. Smaller and simpler examples have been found on a shipwreck off the coast of Sinan, South Korea, datable to approximately the third decade of the 14th century, and were included in the Special Exhibition of Cultural Relics Found Off Sinan Coast, Seoul, National Museum of Korea, 1977, cat. no. 23.

Longquan wares with molded and applied decoration first appeared in the late Song dynasty and were produced in large quantities during the Yuan. Compare a larger vase of the same form and decoration as the present lot, dated by inscription to AD 1327, from the Percival David Foundation, and now in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Margaret Medley, Yuan Porcelain and Stoneware, London, 1974, pl. 58.

Another vase of the same form and decoration in the collection of the University of Malaya was included in the exhibitionChinese Celadons and Other Related Wares in Southeast Asia, Southeast Asian Ceramics Society. Singapore, 1979, cat. no. 153. Another in the Hagi Uragami Museum, Yamaguchi was included in the exhibition Longquan Ware: Chinese Celadon Beloved of the Japanese, Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Seto, 2012, cat. no. 30.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 13 sept. 2016, 10:30 AM