The vase is well-potted with a cylindrical body rising from a low footrim to a canted shoulder sweeping up to a tall gently tapering neck applied with a lively pair of crisply-molded and carved serpentine dragon-fish-handles, each with the detailing of the scales, fins and eyes finely incised, all below a wide everted dished rim with slightly upturned lip, covered overall with an even glaze of soft bluish-green tone, draining to a paler tone at the edges, the unglazed hand-pared footrim burnt an orange color in the firing..

Provenance: 1. Dr. David Goldstein, New York
2. Collection of J.J. Lally, New York
3. The Ten-views Lingbi Rock Retreat Collection, purchased from J.J. Lally & Co., no. LL42.

Exhibited & Literature: J.J. Lally & Co., Early Chinese Ceramics: An American Private Collection, 28 March to 16 April 2005, New York, pl. 54.

Note: Longquan vase with dragon-fish handles is relatively rarely seen, one similar example with two other vases with phoenix handles were recovered from a shipwreck off the coast of Korea in 1323, and included in Special Exhibition of Cultural Relics Found off Sinan Coast, National Museum of Korea, Seoul, 1977, col. pl. 3 (fig.2), which along with pls. 6 and 7. One with dragon-ear handles from the National Palace Museum (fig.3), Taipei (museum no:gu-ci-014124), with several examples with phoenix handles. One smaller examples from the Meiyintang collection, with a more simple design of the handles, see Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. I, London, 2006, p.304, pl. 570. Another example with a slightly larger vase with dragon-fish handles from the Linyushanren Collection (fig.4), see Rosemary Scott, Chinese Classic Wares from a Japanese Collection: Song Ceramics from the Linyushanren Collection’, Arts of Asia, Mar-Apr, 2014, p.97-108, pl.20; One in the Albert & Victoria Museum (fig.5), see Rose Kerr, Song Ceramics, 2004, p.94, pl.95. One example from the Sakamoto Goro Collection, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 2 April, 2019, Lot 3028.

Poly Auction Hong Kong. Immaculately Exquisite - Selected Chinese Ceramics from The Ten-Views Lingbi Rock Retreat Collection, Hong Kong, 7 October  2019