Lot 3639. A fine and massive Longquan celadon charger, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). Estimate 1,800,000 — 2,500,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.

heavily potted with shallow rounded sides resting on a short foot, covered evenly overall with a lustrous pale olive-green glaze, save for an unglazed ring to the base burnt slightly orange in the firing; 63.5 cm, 25 in.

Provenance: An old Kyoto collection.

Notes: Dishes of this large form and fine quality were made in the Longquan kilns from the late 14th century onwards under the supervision of the Ming court. The preference was for large-sized display vessels that were either left undecorated to highlight the luminous celadon glaze, or were decorated with stamped, moulded, incised or carved motifs. Tsai Mei-fen in ‘Introduction to Lonquan Celadon of the Ming Dynasty in the National Palace Museum’, Green Longquan Celadon of the Mind Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2009, pp. 2-22, notes that during the early Ming dynasty, imperial ceramics were produced at both Jingdezhen and Longquan.

Dishes of this massive size are unusual although a reconstructed example excavated at the imperial Longquan kilns at Chuzhou, Zhejiang province, is illustrated in Ye Yingting and Hua Yunong, Faxian. Da Ming Chuzhou Longquan guanyao[Discovery. Imperial ware of the great Ming dynasty from Longquan in Chuzhou], Hangzhou, 2005, p. 254, pl. 6; a slightly larger one was sold in our New York rooms, 8th May 1981, lot 254; another, from the collection of Charlotte Horstmann, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 26th September 1989, lot 555; and a fourth dish, from the collection of Cargill and Donna MacMillan, was sold at Christie’s New York, 26th March 2010, lot 1346.

A rare massive Longquan celadon charger. Yuan-Ming dynasty, 14th-15th century. Price Realised USD 164,500 at Christie’s New York, 26th March 2010, lot 1346.