Lot 3684. Property from the Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong. A rare Longquan celadon 'pavilion and boys' basin, Ming dynasty (1368-1644); 31 cm. Lot Sold 825,500 HKD (Estimate 350,000 - 850,000 HKD) © Sotheby's 2025

Provenance: Collection of the Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong

Note: Scattered with swimming biscuit fish, a hidden serpentine head, scuttling crabs and a towering yet naive pagoda scene of boys at play, the present basin represents the often overlooked creativity and playfulness of vessels produced at the Longquan kilns. Basins and bowls featuring figural scenes are a rare but well-attested feature of Ming dynasty Longquan production. Compare a smaller foliate basin in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, featuring two boys at play amidst lotus fronds, included in Longquan of the World: Longquan Celadon and Globalization , vol. I, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2019, cat. no. 155; another basin, also with foliate rim and molded dragon head, featuring a Buddhist grotto scene to the interior, offered at Christie's London, 8th December 1986, lot 324; and a very closely related basin of this type, design, and subject matter preserved in the Musée d'Ennery (fig.1), Paris (accession no. GUIMET2348-02 ), illustrated in the database of the Réunion des musées nationaux, Grand Palais, Paris.

Sotheby's. Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 7 May 2025