lmost all the very few other extant examples are half this size, and one in the Zhejiang Provincial Museum is illustrated inLongquan Celadon of China, Hangzhou, 1998, pl. 70. Another discovered among a group of Song ceramics excavated at Lueyang, Shaanxi province, is illustrated in Wenwu, 1976, no.11, pl. 6, fig. 5; and a third is included in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl. 474. A guan type Longquan celadon zhadou was sold in our London rooms, 12th December 1989, lot 263, and another is illustrated by Krahl, Yuegutang. A Collection of Chinese Ceramics in Berlin, Berlin, 2000, no.226, of very similar proportions to the present lot, but only half the size. Fragments of these smaller zhadourecovered from kilnsites at Dayao, Longquan county, Zhejiang province, are illustrated in Longquan qingci yanjiu, Beijing, 1989, pl.6, fig.5, with a line drawing, p.57, fig.11(2). The latter examples appear to have much greener and slightly inferior crackled glazes.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 31 mars 2005