Lot 929. Property from the Beixuan Shuzhai Collection. A very rare massive Jun lobed vase, Jin-Yuan dynasty (1115-1368); 63.5 cm high. Price realised HKDD 3,276,000 (Estimate: HKD 2,500,000 - 4,000,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2025.

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby’s New York, 21 September 2006, lot 104

Literature: Qin Dashu, Jun Yao Ceramics from The Beixuan Shuzhai Collection, Hong Kong, 2017, pp. 190-195, no. 22, and front cover

Note: The hexalobed vase has a tall conforming neck and an out-turned petal-like rim raising from the ovoid body with the shoulder encircled by a scalloped collar, all supported on a splayed foot with a raised ridge. The vase is covered overall in an attractive milky blue glaze thinning at the extremities to a mushroom tone, and the foot rim left unglazed to reveal the biscuit body.

This magnificent vase, measuring 63.5 cm. high, is remarkable in size and extremely complex in construction. It was potted in three sections- the neck, body and foot, and was glazed all over, with certain areas such as the luting lines and the mouth applied with an additional layer of glaze. Such complicated manufacture suggests the vase would have been extremely difficult and costly to make, and would undoubtedly belong to a special commission, very likely used as a flower holder during Buddhist rituals.

Two very similar Jun vases with almost identical shape were found in Ruzhou city, Henan, and now in the collections of the Henan Provincial Museum and Ru Porcelain Museum of Ruzhou. Shards of similar floral-rimmed vases were also found in the Jun kilns at Liujiamen in Yuzhou city, dating to the late Jin period. A Cizhou-type painted vase with very similar shape as the current vase, inscribed with a ‘Dading 25th year’ date corresponding to 1185, was found in the Xinmiyaogou kilns in Henan. Based on these related examples, Qin Dashu believes the current vase can be dated to between 1160 and 1271, around late Jin to early Yuan period (for full essay, please refer to Qin Dashu, Jun Yao Ceramics from The Beixuan Shuzhai Collection, Hong Kong, 2017, pp. 190-195, no. 22).

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. P106k43 is consistent with the dating of this lot.