Lot 2099. A pair of very rare Jizhou guri-style pear-shaped vases, Southern Song dynasty, 12th-13th century; 9 in. (23cm.) high. Estimate USD 60,000 - USD 80,000. Price realised USD 106,250. © Christie's Image Ltd 2014

Each pear-shaped vase has a bow-string band on the shoulder below the tapering neck, which rises to an everted foliate mouth rim. The exterior is decorated with an allover design of alternating scroll-filled heart-shaped 'guri' pattern, reserved in a variegated golden opalescence against the matte, dark brown glaze ending on the ring foot. The interior of the mouth is diagonally striped.

Provenance: Christie's New York, 29 March 2006, lot 403 (Price realised USD 156,000).

Note: This pair of Jizhou vases is exceedingly rare. The technique used to create the designs on these vases is difficult to control and vessels decorated in this way are scarce. In addition, the coloration of such decoration is often uneven, while that on the current vases is unusually successful. The majority of the few known examples of this type are small simple forms, whereas these vases have elegant shapes and fluted mouths. No other pair of such Jizhou vases appears to have been published.

A small lidded Jizhou ewer with similar glaze and style of decoration, from the Charles B. Hoyt Collection in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is illustrated by Tsugio Mikami in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 13, Liao, Jin and Yuan, Tokyo, 1981, p. 245, pl. 287, where it is dated Southern Song-Yuan, 13th century. A simple vase or jar with similar glaze and decoration is in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum, while a tea bowl of similar type is in the collection of the Hakutsuru Art Museum. Both are illustrated in The Colors and Forms of Song and Yuan China - Featuring Lacquerwares, Ceramics, and Metalwares, Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo, 2004, nos. 54 and 55, where they are both dated to the Southern Song dynasty. The Nezu catalogue illustrates these pieces side by side with Southern Song dynasty carved lacquers of the type sometimes referred to as 'guri'. This name comes from the decoration on sword pommels, which the designs resemble. The main lines of the decoration and the arrangement of the rows of decoration in the form of alternating heart-shapes are common to both materials.

A bowl with this type of decoration, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, New York, is illustrated by S. Valenstein in A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1989 rev. ed., p. 117, pl. 113, while a fragment of a bowl with the same type of scrolling decoration has been excavated from the Song stratum at the Jizhou kiln site at Ji'anxian and is now in the Jiangxi Provincial Museum. See Zhongguo taoci quanji, vol. 15, Jizhouyao, Shanghai, 1986, no. 82. A jar with this style of decoration, similar to the Tokyo vessel, excavated at Qingjiangxian, Jiangxi, and now in the Jiangxi Provincial Museum is illustrated ibid., no. 115, where it is dated to the Yuan dynasty. Similar scrolling designs, although not usually arranged in alternating heart shapes, were also used in relief to decorate white wares at the Dehua kilns in the Southern Song and Yuan periods. A box of this type in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 70. See, also, the Jizhou vase of similar form, but covered in a 'tortoise-shell' glaze, illustrated in Zhongguo Taoci Quanji, Song, vol. II, Shanghai, 1981, no. 218.

As mentioned above, the exceptional success of the decoration on this pair of vases is remarkable. The golden opalescent quality of the designs contrasts very effectively with the dense, dark brown glaze beneath. Most scholars believe that these designs were painted onto the unfired dark glaze using another glaze rich in low-silica wood ash, which was higher in calcia and magnesia, and lower in silica than the dark brown glaze beneath. When fired, the calcia and magnesia are believed to work as fluxes to create areas of yellowish, milky opalescence and as the temperature within the kiln increases to dilute the dark glaze beneath creating a transparent amber, which when combined with the yellowish milky opalescence produces the dramatic streaky golden designs seen on the current vases. It required good control of both composition and firing to achieve the perfect color and texture seen on these vases. 

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. P105s65 is consistent with the dating of this lot.