A Longquan celadon vase, yuhuchunping, Ming dynasty, 15th century. Photo: Sotheby's.

the generous pear-shaped body elegantly rising from a short straight foot to a slender waisted neck and everted rim, covered overall with an even glossy and unctuous celadon glaze of ideal sage-green tone, pooling below the belly and near the foot and stopping neatly above the footrim, the latter left unglazed and fired to bright orange, the interior of the base glazed; 33 cm., 13 in. Estimation 400,000 — 600,000 HKD (40,239 - 60,359 EUR) 

Provenance: Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio (accession no. 17.381).
Christie's New York, 21th September 2001, lot 293.

This vase is particularly fine in the quality of its glaze to accentuate the elegant proportions of its shape which are characteristic of Longquan celadon wares of the early Ming dynasty, particularly the Yongle period. During this period the Longquan kilns appear to have worked closely with the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen, thus making wares of similar form, decoration and quality, perhaps under imperial instruction.

A closely related vase is illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl. 587; another, included in the exhibition Chugoku seiji ten, Nihon Toji Kyokai (Japan Ceramics Association), Tokyo, 1950, cat. no. 79, was sold in these rooms, 26th October 2003, lot 49; and a third example was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1stDecember 2012, lot 3105. Compare the more slender proportions and slightly opaque glaze of vases of this type of the Yuan dynasty, such as one illustrated in Zhu Boqian,Celadons from Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, pl. 160, which reveals the refinement achieved by the Ming dynasty. 

Sotheby's. Important Ming Porcelain from a Private Collection. Hong Kong | 08 oct. 2013. http://www.sothebys.com