Lot 3688. A fine and rare Longquan celadon basin, 14th century; 26.7 cm., 10 1/2  in. Estimate 600,000 — 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,000,000 HKD (101,985 EUR). Photo Sotheby’s

the exquisitely shaped body with deep rounded sides rising from a short straight foot, applied with a briilliant pale-green glaze trasmuting to a sea-green colour at the rim, save for the unglazed footring under the base burnt brownish-orange during the firing.

Provenance: An old Japanese collection.

Note: Longquan celadon bowl of this large size and shape, in the Hakutsuru Fine Art Museum, Kobe, is illustrated in Hakutsuru Eika, Kobe, 1988, pl. 106; another is published in John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 1, Geneva, 1999, pl. 48; a slightly smaller bowl of this form, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the Museum’s exhibition Green-Longquan Celadon of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 2012, cat. no. 14; and a larger example was sold in our London rooms, 15th June 1982, lot 267. Compare also two bowls of this form richly carved with a lotus scroll, included in National Palace Museum’s exhibition, ibid., cat. nos 18 and 19; and a slightly smaller example carved with floral sprays, from the Higashi Honganji Temple, Kyoto, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1st June 2011, lot 3811.