Page 132 - Bonhams Chinese Paintings June 2015

Property from the Meeker collection
7236
A fine and rare Longquan celadon vase with molded decoration
Yuan dynasty
Thickly formed and molded in raised relief with horizontal string bands beneath the flared rim
and opposing flowering branches rising from further string bands at the base of the tall neck,
a graceful flower and leaf scroll band and raised lotus petals surrounding the body of inverted
pear form resting on a wedged foot with shallowly recessed base, the unctuous sea-green
glaze covering all surfaces except the foot pad and a few spots of cinnamon burn where the
glaze layer opened during firing.
14 1/8in (36cm) high
$40,000 - 60,000
Provenance
purchased, 1953, in Tokyo, Japan
For a Longquan vase of slightly larger size but similar decoration, see He Li, Chinese Ceramics:
a New Comprehensive Survey from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1996, no. 362,
pp.176-177 and p. 203, (17 5/8in, 44.8cm high, as 14th-15th century). For an example of
smaller size but similar shape and decoration (25cm high), excavated from a Yuan period
shipwreck off the Korean coast of Todokdo, Sinan-gun, see Shin’an kaitei hikiage bunbutsu
(The Sunken Treasures off the Sinan Coast,), 1983, cat. no. 5, p. 58. Incomplete examples
can be seen in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum Istanbul , 1986:
vol. I, cat. nos. 205 (TKS15/213 and TKS15/9755), pp .288-289 (as early/mid-14th century).
See also a complete example of large size from the City Art Museum of St. Louis, with four
flowering branches on the neck and similar decoration on the body, included in Sherman Lee
and Wai-kam Ho, Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), 1968, cat.
no. 63 (28 1/2in, 72.4cm high).

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