Lot 92. An extremely rare Korean celadon bottle vase, Koryo dynasty, 12th century. Estimate 100,000 — 150,000 HKD (11,289 - 16,934 EUR). Lot sold 1,625,000 HKD (183,449 EUR). Photo Sotheby's.

elegantly potted, the elongated pear-shaped body gracefully rising from a short tapered foot to a slender waisted neck flaring gently at the rim, covered overall in a rich sea-green glaze stopping at the neatly cut footring revealing the greyish-buff ware; 28.5 cm, 11 1/4  in.

Provenance: Collection of Miss Dorothy C. Pape, until 1961.
Bluett & Sons Ltd, London, 1961 (£35).
Collection of Roger Pilkington (1928-69), from 1961 (£85).

Note: Celadon-glazed vases of this sweeping form are held in important museums and private collections worldwide; see one in the National Museum of Korea, Seoul, included in the exhibition Treasures from Korea. Art Through 5000 Years, British Museum, London, cat. no. 144; another from the collection of G.St.G.M. Gompertz, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, illustrated in Yong-I Yun, Korean Art from the Gompertz and Other Collections in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 2006, front cover and pl. 67; and a third vase illustrated in Sekai tōji zenshū [Catalogue of world’s ceramics], vol. 13, Tokyo, 1955, pl. 50. See also a smaller vase of this type, from the collection of Don Henry Salin and now in the Musée Guimet, Paris, illustrated in Pierre Cambon, L’Art Coréen au Musée Guimet, Paris, 2001, pl. 23, no. 6; and another from the Ataka collection, now in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, illustrated in The Beauty of Asian Ceramics from the Collection of the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2014, pl. 4.

Sotheby's. The Pilkington Collection of Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 06 Apr 2016