Page 98 - Christies May 2016

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION

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A VERY RARE SMALL GUAN VASE, HU
SONG DYNASTY (960-1279)

The vessel is elegantly potted with a protruding peach-shaped panel to each side and a pair of lug handles
to the neck. It is decorated overall in a thick smooth greyish-celadon glaze streaked with fne pale brown
crackles. The short rectangular foot has two apertures to the sides, with the unglazed underside revealing
the dark grey body.
4 in. (10 cm.) high

£20,000-30,000 $29,000-42,000
€26,000-38,000

PROVENANCE:

From a private European collection, acquired in the late 19th century.

The hu shape of the present vase takes inspiration from earlier ritual bronze prototypes, exemplifying
the Song emperors’ reverence for antiquity. The unctuous glaze is characteristic of the superior quality
of Guan wares produced at the time. See a related Song vase in the National Palace Museum in Taipei,
included in the Museum’s Special Exhibition of Sung Dynasty Kuan Ware, Taipei, 1989, cat. no. 12. Also
compare this vase to a similar but slightly taller (17.6 cm.) Guan vase, dated to the Southern Song
Dynasty (1127-1279) and bearing a later added poem by the emperor Qianlong (1736-1795), sold at
Sotheby’s London, 13 June 1989, lot 180. Another hu vase of very similar form, size and decoration dated
to the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) was previously exhibited at the Oriental Ceramic Society in London
(Ju and Kuan Wares, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1952, no. 66) and the Musée Cernuschi in Paris
(L’Art de la Chine des Song, Ville de Paris, Musée Cernuschi, Paris, 1956, cat. no. 90), then subsequently
sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 April 2013, lot 3044.

宋 官窯杏圓貫耳小壺

來源: 歐洲私人珍藏，購自十九世紀末

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