Lot 3009. A rare 'Longquan' celadon vase, cong, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279);  25.8 cm, 10 1/8  in.. Estimate 1,200,000 — 1,800,000 HKD (145,995 - 218,992 EUR). Lot sold 1,500,000 HKD (181,371 Eur) Photo: Sotheby's 2017

modelled after an archaic jade cong, each long edge of the square-sectioned body with eight raised horizontal bands within a raised rectangular frame, all supported on a short foot and surmounted by a gently tapered neck, covered overall save for the footring with a lustrous celadon glaze draining to pale bluish-white at the raised edges and pooling to sea-green at the recessed areas.

Provenance: A Japanese private collection, by repute. 

Note: Celadon vases of this form imitate archaic ritual jade objects in shape and colour and represent one of the most characteristic types of Song ceramics. The form derives from jade cong, which are not shaped as containers but as open tubes, and are known particularly from the Neolithic Liangzhu culture. A fine example from the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, was included in the exhibition Gems of Liangzhu Culture, Hong Kong Museum of History, Hong Kong, 1992, cat. no. 57.

Several cong vases can be seen in famous collections throughout the world; one in the Shanghai Museum is illustrated in Longquan qingci [Celadon of Longquan], Beijing, 1966, pl. 15; one is published in the Illustrated Catalogue of Sung Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum. Lung-ch'uan Ware, Ko Ware and Other Wares, Tokyo, 1974, pls 8 and 9; another from the Eumorfopoulus Collection and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is included in John Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, pl. 124; and a fourth example from the Oppenheim Collection and now in the British Museum, London, is published in Jessica Rawson, ed., The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, London, 1992, pl. 8 left.

Compare also a vase of this type, from the Toguri Collection, sold in our London rooms, 9th June 2004, lot 53; and another from the Baron Hatvany Collection, included in the exhibition Song Ceramics, Southeast Asian Ceramic Society, Singapore, 1983, cat. no. 36, and sold in our London rooms, 5th November 1996, lot 605.

Sotheby's. Curiosity III, Hong Kong, 04 Apr 2017, 10:30 AM