Lot 588. A rare carved Yaozhou celadon 'floral' jar, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 15.2 cm, 6 in. Estimate 100,000 — 150,000 HKD. Lot sold 525,000 HKD. © Sotheby's.

of tall ovoid form, set with a pair of strap handles below a splayed mouth rim, deftly carved with undulating floral sprays, covered overall in an olive-green glaze suffused with crackles, the glaze stopping irregularly above the splayed foot.

Exhibited: Song Ceramics from the Kwan Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1994, cat. no. 79.

Note: Yaozhou kilns mostly manufacture dishes and bowls as these two types were labour-efficient to produce in large quantities and could easily be stacked. The kilns produced very few upright shapes otherwise, which are much more time-consuming to form and to decorate, take up much valuable kiln space, and are more likely to fail in the firing. The present jar is one of these rare examples.

A related jar similarly decorated with carved floral design, but lacking the two handles and the rim flange, in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, was included in the exhibition The Masterpieces of Yaozhou Ware, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1997, cat. no. 74. Compare also a vase of related form in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 94. 

Sotheby's. Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 29 november 2018