Page 98 - 2021 March 15th Fine Chinese Paintings and Works of Art, Bonhams NYC New York

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION

101
A LONGQUAN CELADON ‘BOW-STRING’ VASE, XIANWENPING
Southern Song-Yuan Dynasty
The tall-necked pear-shaped vase with seven horizontal bow-string raised
lines, three together just above the widest point of the body, two together
at the shoulder, and two single lines equally distanced to the neck, below
a shallow cup-shaped mouth, all under a luminescent even celadon glaze
pooling at the bow-string bands and stopping fairly-evenly above the short
gray stoneware foot with brown-dressing, Japanese gilt repair at rim.
11 3/4in (29.8cm) high
$3,000 - 5,000

南宋至元 龍泉青釉弦紋瓶

The fine, raised lines on vases of this type give the shape one of its Chinese
names, xianwenping, ‘string pattern vase’.

These tall-necked vases with ‘bow-string’ bands were very much admired
in Japan for their elegance of form and beauty of their glazes. This was
evidenced when the wreck of a ship, (‘Sinan Wreck’), which had foundered
off the coast of Korea on its way to Japan, in AD 1323, was found to
contain such items amongst its cargo of celadon wares. See National
Museum of Korea, Sinan Wreck Exhibition, Seoul, 1977, no. 15.

Vases of this form have also been excavated from kiln sites in the Longquan
area, such as the example illustrated in Longquan Qingci Yanjiu, Beijing,
1989, pl. 41, fig. 1.
101
For other examples, Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 12, Tokyo, 1977, no. 81, from
the Nezu Museum; another in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art
is published by Margaret Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Celadon Wares,
London, 1977, pl. V, no. 50. Others are also illustrated in Newly Discovered
Southern Song Ceramics - A Thirteenth-Century “Time Capsule”, Japan,
1998, pp. 14-16, nos. 2-4, from a remarkable Southern Song hoard
excavated at Jinyucun, Suining City, Sichuan province in 1991.

A slightly smaller example was sold at Christie’s, New York, 19 September
2013, lot 1276. Another example is illustrated in Transactions of the Oriental
Ceramic Society, 1969-70/1970-71, London, 1972, in an edition for the
exhibition ‘The Ceramic Art of China’, organised by the Arts Council of Great
Britain and The Oriental Ceramic Society at the Victoria and Albert Museum,
9th June-25th July, 1971, no. 113, pl. 77; more recently, another sold at
Christie’s, New York, 22 March 2019, lot 1739.

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION
102
A LONGQUAN CELADON HORIZONTALLY-RIBBED CYLINDRICAL
SLEEVE VASE
Song/Yuan Dynasty
The vase tapering gradually from the shallow shoulder to the foot and with
fourteen horizontal concave bands formed from raised ribs, the waisted
neck plain under a lightly everted rim, the olive-green glaze stopping neatly
above the orange-fired grey stoneware foot, the base interior glazed.
10 3/4in (27.3cm) high

$5,000 - 7,000

宋/元 龍泉青釉筒瓶

102 For two other slightly smaller examples, see Kuan Ware of the Sung
Dynasty, Porcelain of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, CAFA, 1963, pls.
12 & 13.

For a later Imperial Yongzheng-marked example based on a Song/Yuan
precursor, see Christie’s, Hong Kong, 25 November 2014, lot 3266
96 | BONHAMS