Page 14 - Christie's Hong Kong May 31, 2017 Important Chinese Ceramics and Art
P. 14
THE ROGER BELANICH COLLECTION OF LONGQUAN CELADON
CERAMICS
3001
A RARE LONGQUAN CELADON BOWL The distinctive shape of this bowl, with a small foot ring and a wide,
inturned mouth rim, is based on a Middle Eastern prototype common
YUAN DYNASTY (1279-1368) to both pottery and metalwork. For a Persian bronze bowl dating to the
12th-13th century, shown alongside a Longquan bowl of corresponding
The bowl is thickly potted with rounded sides flaring from a foot form, see M. Medley, Metalwork and Chinese Ceramics, London, 1972, p.
ring to an inverted rim, the centre is impressed with a blossoming, 45, pl. 15 a and b.
leafy branch within a single line border, covered overall with an
even glaze of sea-green tone. A Longquan bowl of very similar shape, but subtly carved with vertical
7 ¿ in. (18.1 cm.) diam., Japanese metal cover, Japanese wood box petals on the exterior, is illustrated in Celadons from Longquan Kilns,
Taipei, 1998, p. 163, no. 134. A number of Longquan bowls of this form,
HK$320,000-480,000 US$42,000-62,000 also carved with petals on the exterior, were excavated from the wreck
of a merchant ship that foundered off the coast of Korea in AD 1323 on
PROVENANCE its way to Japan. See Special Exhibition of Cultural Relics Found off the
Sinan Coast, Seoul, 1977, nos. 107-9.
Sold at Christie’s New York, 19 March 2008, lot 558
This bowl is particularly elegant, as the plain, uncarved sides show off
the sea-green colour of the glaze to its best advantage.
12