Page 78 - Sotheby's Asia Week March 2024 Chinee Art

A superlative example of its type produced during the 14th Similarly, these Longquan vases were also highly coveted
century, the present lot belongs to a group of vases which abroad. See a closely related vase decorated with peonies,
would have been highly treasured and sought after both excavated in 1975 from the Sinan shipwreck in the Jeungdo
domestically and abroad. For example, see a closely related Island waters near Sinan County in South Korea. The ship
vase in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession no. set sail from China in 1323, likely to have been part of a trade
故瓷003551N000000000), similarly decorated with fleet between the Ningbo port and the Hakata port of Japan.
peonies but with denser design, dated to the first half
of the 14th century, and illustrated in Green: Longquan Interestingly, the long inscription to the underside of the
Celadon of the Ming Dynasty / Bilu: Mingdai Longquan cover of the Japanese box notes that this vase was in the
yao qing ci, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2009, cat. collection of the Jinsho-ji temple in the Ohmi region of Japan.
no. 156 (fig. 1); another, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, The note was inscribed by Hotsuma living at that time in
Fig. 1 A ‘Longquan’ celadon-glazed ‘peony’ vase, Yuan dynasty © National Palace Museum, Taipei Katori-mura and is dated to August 1947. Hotsuma Katori
is illustrated in Tianxia Longquan: Longquan qingci yu
圖1 元 龍泉窰青瓷拱花花卉紋鳳尾瓶 © 國立故宮博物院，臺北 quanqiu hua / Longquan of the World: Longquan Celadon was a renowned Japanese metalwork artist who won the
and Globalization, vol. 2, Beijing, 2019, cat. no. 105. These order of cultural merit as the first prize winner, and was also
vases were most likely treasured offerings that devoted an official in charge of imperial court poetry. Moreover, he
Buddhists placed within temples. Compare the well-known was also known as an outstanding researcher of Japanese
example, of slightly larger size, with a more slender neck, history and was a professor at the Tokyo Art School (now
rounded shoulder and waisted foot, from the Sir Percival known as the Tokyo National Art University). His first son,
David Collection, now in the British Museum (accession no. Masahiko Katori, later was prized as a National Living
Enveloped in a thick, luminous celadon glaze of sage-green taste shifted. The Mongol Yuan’s taste for richer, more PDF.237). It is dated by inscription and was commissioned Artist of Japan. In the note, Hotsuma stated that the vase
tone, the present vase is testament to the breathtaking elaborate ornamentation marked a turn away from the by Zhang Jincheng to be placed before the Buddha in was given to the temple by Shogun Ashikaga during the
craftsmanship at the Longquan kilns in Zhejiang province serene to the exuberant, particularly invigorated by the the Great Hall of Ritual at Juelin Temple in the second Muromachi period.
during the Yuan dynasty. Outstanding in execution, crisp, lively blue and white porcelains being produced by the month of autumn of the dingmao year during the Taiding
naturalistic renderings of blooming peonies on lush, curling neighboring Jingdezhen kilns in Jiangxi province. Adapting period, corresponding to 1327. At the early fourteenth- For examples sold at auction, see a closely related vase
branches encircle the neck and upper body of the vase, to these changes, the Longquan kilns introduced a range of century Baita village site within the city limits of Hohhot previously on loan to the Osaka Municipal Museum from
boasting the technical excellence of the potter. The elegant different techniques such as ostentatiously carved, molded in Inner Mongolia, similarly decorated, yet smaller temple 1966 to 2018, and illustrated in Sensei, Bansei and Celadon
horizontal ribs under the lip echo the slender, upright lappets and applied decoration, often in high relief, to compete with vases were also discovered. According to Li Zuozhi in his of Longquan Yao, Kuboso Memorial Museum of Art, Izumi,
to the lower body, enclosing the floral registers within and the Jingdezhen kilns. Indeed, the introduction was a breath article ‘Huhehaote shi dongjiao chutu de ji jian Yuandai 1996, cat. no. 76, sold at Christie’s New York, 22nd March
creating a sense of visual balance and harmony. of fresh air to these porcelains that were otherwise minimally ciqi [A number of Yuan dynasty porcelains unearthed in 2019, lot 1623; another, with a more capacious floral
adorned. The kilns were able to combine its celebrated jade- decoration to the body, was formerly in the H. M. Knight
The Longquan kilns, during the Southern Song dynasty, like glaze with now lively, delightful designs that suited the the eastern suburb of Hohhot city]’, Wenwu, no. 5, 1977, Collection and sold in our London rooms, 18th June
excelled in creating subtle, understated, mostly Yuan contemporary taste. pp 75-77, the superb quality of the porcelains and the close 1985, lot 85; and lastly, a carved and molded yenyen
monochromatic wares that were favored by the Song proximity of the site to Baita, these porcelains were used as vase, previously in the Fujita Museum, Osaka, was sold in
imperial court. Yet with the change of the regime in 1279, temple vases within the Daming Temple. Christie’s New York, 15th March 2017.

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