Song dynasty ceramics @ Christie's, Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

A very rare imperially inscribed small guanyao vase. Southern Song/Yuan dynasty, 13th century. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd., 2010

Of tapering pear shape raised on a tall foot, covered overall with a thick crackled glaze of bluish-grey tone thinning on the edges of the lug handles, the foot rim left unglazed revealing the dark greyish-brown ware, the base finely inscribed with an imperial poem praising its charm and essence, followed by a Qianlong cyclical bingxu date, corresponding to the summer of 1766, and one seal reading guxiang (ancient fragrance) - 3 7/8 in. (9.8 cm.) high. Est. $120,000 - $200,000 Price Realized $362,500

Provenance: Stephen Junkunc, III.

Notes: This charming small hu vase is of exactly the type that appealed to the Chinese taste for miniature pieces. This taste found its greatest imperial expression in the Qianlong reign when selected small antique items from the imperial collections were put into ingeniously constructed 'treasure boxes', duobaoge, literally box of many treasures. Some of these boxes were specially made for the purpose, while others were adapted from antique boxes in the palace. A small Guan ware hu vase very similar to the current vessel is amongst the forty-seven precious items from Qianlong's collection, which were kept in specially constructed separate compartments within a square zitan box carved with dragons, preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and illustrated in Emperor Ch'ien-lung's Grand Cultural Enterprise, Taipei, 2002, pp. 52-3, no. I-41. These treasure boxes were organized in three different ways. One type was made to contain items that belonged to a single category, such as the round black lacquer box decorated with gold in the Palace Museum, Beijing, which held forty small jade items, illustrated in Qing Legacies: The Sumptuous Art of Imperial Packaging, Macau, 2000, p. 118, no. 40, or the carved zitan box made to hold sixteen snuff bottles in the same collection, illustrated ibid., p. 162, no. 65. Other treasure boxes opened to reveal groups of small display shelves and stands holding miniature items in a variety of materials. The current small vase might have been displayed in a box of this sort, or in a box of the third sort with individual compartments, like the zitan dragon box in the National Palace Museum, mentioned above, which contained a similar vase.

On the base of the current vase is a poetic inscription which is also recorded in Qing Gaozong yuzhi shiwen quanji (Anthology of Imperial Poetry and Prose Composed by Gaozong [Qianlong] of the Qing Dynasty), Beijing, 1993, p. 208. It is recorded with the title 'Ode [literally 'chant' in Chinese] to a Guan ware two-eared hu vase'. The inscription may be translated as reading:

'Appraising this vase as if looking at Yue ware or Ru ware
It is not classically beautiful or perfect but it has great charm.
Like the paintings of the great masters Ni and Huang
It is not made simply in the pursuit of beauty but of capturing an essence.'
Imperial poem, composed in the summer of the bingxu year of the Qianlong reign [AD 1766]'.
The inscription on the vase is followed by a seal, guxiang.
The Ni and Huang referred to in this inscription are artists, regarded as two of the four great Yuan masters - Ni Zan (AD 1301-74) and Huang Gongwang (AD 1269-1354).

Larger vases of this hu form tend to have two encircling raised lines indicating a band at the height of the tubular handles. However, this feature is absent from the current vase and from the small Guan ware hu in Qianlong's treasure box, mentioned above. Two more small vases of this form without any indicated band are published. One of these, now in the Zhejiang Provincial Museum where it is classified as imperial Guan ware, is illustrated in Green Wares from Zhejiang, Fung Ping Shan Museum, Hong Kong, 1993, no. 65. The other is illustrated by Yamanaka & Co. in Grand Exhibition of Ancient Chinese and Corean Works of Art, Tokyo, 1934, fig. 19, where it is designated Ge ware. Both of these latter vases are just a little larger than the current vessel and the small vase in the National Palace Museum, and have the vestiges of a raised line running vertically from mouth to foot.

Even with its small size, the current vase is notable for the thickness, translucency and pleasing color of its glaze, as well as control of the glaze crackle. This is exactly the sort of skillfully made miniature vase, with a form inspired by antique bronzes, that would have appealed to the Qianlong emperor.

A longquan celadon pear-shaped vase, yuhuchunping. Southern Song/Yuan dynasty, 12th-14th century. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd., 2010

The pear-shaped body surmounted by a slender neck rising to a flared mouth, covered overall with an attractive glaze of even sea-green tone, the unglazed foot ring burnt orange in the firing - 10¾ in. (27.3 cm.) high. Est. $50,000 - $70,000  Price Realised $62,500

Notes: Compare the very similar Longquan celadon yuhuchunping dated to the Yuan dynasty excavated in 1983 in Taishun County, Zhejiang province, illustrated in Celadons from Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, p. 187, no. 160. Other similar Longquan celadon vases have been sold in these rooms: one formerly in the J.M. Hu Collection, sold 15 September 2009, lot 342; and another sold 19 March 2008, lot 562. See, also, the Longquan celadon vase of similar proportions, but with tobi-seiji glaze, from the Ataka Collection, now in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, illustrated in the catalogue, Exhibition of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1982, no. 23.

A rare yaozhou celadon carved ewer. Northern Song dynasty, 11th/12th century. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd., 2010

The ovoid body deftly carved with two leafy flowering peony stems below a band of overlapping petals on the shoulder from which rise the curved spout and the ribbed strap handle, the waisted neck incised with two double-line bands below the everted rim with lipped edge, covered overall with a dark olive-green glaze which also covers the base - 9 1/8 in. (23.2 cm.) high. Est. $7,000 - $9,000 - Price Realised $52,500

Provenance: Acquired prior to 1985. Property from the Ping Y. Tai Foundation

Notes: An excavated ewer very similar to the current vessel in the collection of the Yaozhou-ware Museum was included in the exhibition, The Masterpieces of Yaozhou Ware, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1997, p. 56, no. 73. The only significant difference between the two is that the excavated vessel has two sprig-molded vertical elements - one placed on either side of the neck - in a manner reminiscent of the 10th century Yue-ware ewer in the Falk Collection, sold in these rooms, 20 September 2001, lot 34.

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test number P108u83 is consistent with the dating of this lot.

A rare ding-type russet-glazed bowl and cover. Northern Song/Jin dynasty, 12th century. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd., 2010

Of deep U-shape, the exterior covered with a lustrous russet glaze with dark brownish-black tones at the rim, stopping above the knife-cut foot to expose the buff-fired ware, the domed cover with everted rim and small 'twig' handle similarly glazed, the interior of the bowl covered in an even white, crackle-suffused glaze - 4¼ in. (10.8 cm.) high, box. Est. $40,000 - $60,000 - Price Realised $43,750

Notes: The firing of the rich russet glaze on this elegant covered bowl is particularly successful. Russet glazes were utilized at several northern Chinese kilns in the Song and early Jin periods, including the Ding and Yaozhou kilns, and seem to have been especially admired on vases and forms associated with the tea ceremony. The Gegu Yaolun, published in AD 1388, notes that 'purple' (i.e. russet) and black Ding were even more expensive than white Ding wares. See Sir Percival David, Chinese Connoisseruship - The Ko Ku Yao Lun, London, 1971, p. 141.

A very similar russet-glazed porcelain bowl and cover, described as "Ding ware" with "dark reddish purple glaze", in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 32 - Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong, 1996, p. 94, no. 85. The same covered bowl is illustrated again in Ceramics Gallery of the Palace Museum, Part 1, Beijing, 2008, p. 188, no. 125; and by Feng and Li in Gugong bowuyuan cang Zhongguo gudai yaozhi biaoben, vol. II, Hebei juan (Ancient Chinese Kiln Site Samples in the Collection of the Palace Museum, vol. II, Hebei), Beijing 2006, p. 239, no. 1, where a shard of a russet-glazed cover, similar to that of the present lot, is illustrated p. 235, no. 197. Such shards are consistent with those found at the Ding kiln site in Quyang, Hebei province.

A slightly smaller russet-glazed Ding covered bowl in the Capital Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Shoudu bowuguan cang ci xuan (Selected Porcelains from the Capital Museum Collection), Beijing, 1992, second edition, p. 70, no. 24, where it is described as "covered with glossy russet-color glaze on the exterior, with lightly crackled white glaze on the interior". Another Ding russet-glazed covered bowl of smaller size is illustrated in the catalogue of the Nezu Institute of Fine Arts exhibition, White Porcelain of Ding Yao, Tokyo, 1983, p. 82, no. 145, and again in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, col. pl. 83. A further example in the Buffalo Museum of Science, New York, is illustrated by N. Wood, Chinese Glazes: Their Origins, Chemistry and Recreation, London, 1999, p. 157.

A rare yaozhou celadon carved bowl and cover. Northern Song/Jin dynasty, 11th-12th century. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd., 2010

The bowl with deep rounded sides rising from the straight foot rim and deftly carved with two leafy peony sprays, covered overall with a transparent glaze of olive-green color, the cover with flat, flaring rim and domed center carved with a further peony stem and surmounted by a flattened, coiled stem finial, covered with a glaze that continues over the rim in places, the underside of the cover left unglazed exposing the fine-grained ware. Bowl 4¼ in. (10.9 cm.) diam., cover 4¾ in. (12 cm.) diam., box - Est. $12,000 - $15,000. Price Realised $35,000

Provenance: Christie's Swire, Hong Kong, 31 October 1994, lot 533.
Sotheby's, New York, 21-22 September 2005, lot 35.

Notes: A very similar Yaozhou celadon bowl and cover is illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 3 (II), London, 2006, p. 483, no. 1486. Fragmentary covered bowls of this type have been recovered from the Yaozhou kiln sites at Huangpu near Tongchuan in Shaanxi province. See Songdai Yaozhou yaozhi, Beijing, 1998, col. pl. 2, fig. 2, and pl. 29, fig. 6.

A rare carved longquan celadon jar. Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279). Photo: Christie's Images Ltd., 2010

The body carved with a wide band of upright petals below a broad neck encircled by the applied body of a four-clawed dragon with ridged backbone, covered overall with a glaze of bluish-green tone except for the lip and foot rim left unglazed to expose the grey-bodied ware burnt orange in the firing; together with a celadon-glazed cover surmounted by an elephant-form finial - 8¼ in. (21 cm.) high, Japanese wood box. Est. $30,000 - $40,000 Price Realised $35,000

Provenance: Masuda Takashi (1848-1938) Collection.

Notes: Celadon vessels of this type are discussed by Julian Thompson in the article "Chinese Celadons", Arts of Asia, November - December 1993, pp. 60-72, where this glaze color, referred to as Kinuta by the Japanese, "was rarely obtained". It appears that jars of this type originally appeared in pairs, one applied around its shoulder with the 'green dragon of the East', the other the 'white tiger of the West'. A pair of these jars in the Percival David Foundation is illustrated by M. Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Celadon Wares, London, 1977, pl. IV, no. 36. Medley suggests they may have been filled with aromatic oils.

A very similar jar and cover from the Avery Brundage collection in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, is illustrated by M. Tregear, Song Ceramics, New York, 1982, col. pl. 286, and another from the Shanghai Museum is illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji; Gongyi meishu bian; Taoci, vol. 2, Shanghai, 1988, no. 204. See, also, the slightly smaller jar with winged dragon and a cover surmounted by a recumbent dog, sold in these rooms, 21 September 2000, lot 282.

A rare small longquan celadon trumpet-necked baluster vase. Southern Song/Yuan dynasty, 12th-13th century.. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd., 2010

Delicately carved around the upper body with floral scroll above a band of petals rising from the foot and below a series of concentric rings encircling the trumpet-shaped neck, covered overall and on the base with a crackled glaze of blue-green tone, the foot rim left unglazed exposing the buff ware burnt orange in the firing - 9 15/16 in. (25.2 cm.) high, two Japanese wood boxes - Est. $15,000 - $18,000 Price Realised $17,500

Provenance: By repute, the collection of Lord Honda of Aki province.

A jizhou paper-cut resist-decorated conical bowl. Southern Song dynasty, 12th-13th century. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd., 2010

The interior of the shallow flared sides decorated in resist technique with paper-cut decoration of three floral sprays reserved in brown against the finely variegated, milky buff ground, the exterior covered with a glaze of dark brown color mottled in beige falling short of a knife-cut edge above the low, narrow ring foot - 5 5/8 in. (14.3 cm.) diam. Est. $4,000 - $6,000. Price Realised $11,250

Provenance: Anthony R. Derham Collection.

Exhibited: The Headley-Whitney Museum (Smithsonian Institution Affiliation), Lexington, Kentucky.

A longquan celadon 'twin fish' dish. Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279). Photo: Christie's Images Ltd., 2010

The interior relief-decorated in the center with two fish and the exterior carved with a band of petals below the everted rim, covered overall with a glaze of sea-green color thinning on the raised areas - 11 in. (28 cm.) diam., box - Est. $7,000 - $9,000.  Price Realised $10,000

Property From a Private West Coast Collection

Notes: A smaller (22.9 cm. diam.) dish of this type, also dated Southern Song dynasty, was sold in these rooms, 17 September 2008, lot 435.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Including Property from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections. 26 March 2010. New York, Rockefeller Plaza www.christies.com