of mallow form, the six lobed sides resting on a tall footring, applied overall save for the pale grey footring with a greyish sea-green glaze suffused with a network of golden crackle and pooling at the recesses, Japanese wood box.

ProvenanceA Japanese collection, by repute.

NoteThis exquisite cup with its delicate floral form, thin potting and unctuous grey-celadon glaze with a fine web of crackles, belongs to a group of celadon wares made to resemble the fabled guan (official) wares that were produced for the imperial court during the Southern Song dynasty. The attractive jade-like glaze of these pieces is particularly thick as it was applied in multiple layers that required successive firing, a method that was most probably borrowed from the imperial kilns at Laohudong in Hangzhou where guan ware was produced. The subtle web of crackles was also similarly achieved through a well-controlled cooling process after the last firing.

Longquan celadon wares of this type are discussed by Zhu Boqian in Celadons from Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, pp. 37-39, who notes that two distinct types were made, those with a dark body and a thick glaze, such as this piece, and those with a light grey body; see two dark-bodied Longquan cups of round shape with a crackled glaze excavated in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, illustrated ibid., pls 141 and 142.

Two cups of this elegant floral form and size, formerly in the Arthur M. Sackler and Else Sackler collections, were sold together at Christie's New York, 20th-27th March 2018, lot 44; another cup from the collection of Mrs Alfred Clark, with more defined petals, was sold in our London rooms, 25th March 1975, lot 60; and a further example, was included in the exhibition Song Ceramics from the Kwan Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1994, cat. no. 65, and sold in our London rooms, 12th November 2003, lot 78.

Compare two slightly larger guan cups of this form, covered in a lighter crackled glaze, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, were included in the Museum’s exhibition Precious as the Morning Star: 12th-14th Century Celadons in the Qing Court Collection, Taipei, 2016, cat. no. II-33.

Sotheby's. Monochrome II, 9 October 2020, Hong Kong