Lot 2953. A very rare Longquan celadon russet-splashed vase, yuhuchunping, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368); 9 7/8 in. (25 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 2,000,000 - HKD 3,000,000. Price realised HKD 3,940,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

The vase is elegantly potted with a wide flaring mouth and covered in a thick greyish-celadon glaze decorated with scattered oxidised iron-brown splashes stopping above the unglazed foot, box. 

Property from the Yangdetang Collection. 

Note: There are four comparable vases of similar shape and decoration: the first, measuring 27.4 cm. high, is registered in Japan as National Treasure and now belongs to the Oriental Ceramics Museum, Osaka; (fig. 1) the second, in a Japanese private collection and registered as Important Cultural Property, is illustrated in Koyama Fujio, ed., Sekai toji zenshu: China Sung and Liao Dynasties, vol. 10, Tokyo, 1956, pls. 17 and 49; the third is in the Baur Collection, Geneva, measuring 28 cm. high, and illustrated by John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics, vol. 1, no. A104; and another in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated by William Bowyer Honey, The Ceramic Art of China and Other Countries of the Far East, London, 1945, pl. 36. Compare also a pair of similar garlic-mouth bottle vases also from the Yangdetang Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2016, lot 3133. (fig. 2)

A Longquan celadon russet-splashed vase, yuhuchunping, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368); 27.4 cm. high. National Treasure. The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka.

From the Yangdetang Collection. An extremely rare pair of Longquan tobi seiji garlic-mouth bottle vases, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368);  10 in. (25.3 cm.) high. Sold for HKD 12,060,000 at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2016, lot 3133. © Christie's Images Ltd 2016

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 28 November 2018