Lot 3210. A  very rare small Ge bottle vase, Song dynasty (960-1279) or later; 5 3/4 in. (14.5 cm.) high. Estimate HK$400,000 - HK$600,000 ($51,829 - $77,744). Price Realized HK$4,240,000 ($549,260). © Christie's Image Ltd 2014

The vase is well-potted with a compressed bulbous body raised on a short cylindrical foot ring and tapers to a long neck terminating in a small slightly lipped mouth. It is covered with a thick cream-coloured glaze with a spiralling network of black crackles underlaid with finer golden-brown crackles. 

Note: Two similar vases in the Palace Museum, Beijing, have been published, the first of very similar size (14.2 cm. high) and proportions, illustrated in Song Dynasty (III), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 35; and the second, slightly smaller in size (13.8 cm. high) with a narrower lower body, ibid, no. 36. Another closely related example, similar in proportions to the second Palace Museum example, was included in the exhibition catalogue Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palace Museum, New York, 1996, pl. 123. 

Christie's. THE SOUND OF JADE AND THE SHADOW OF A CHRYSANTHEMUM, Hong Kong, 28 May 2014