Page 99 - 2021 March 15th Fine Chinese Paintings and Works of Art, Bonhams NYC New York

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION

103
A SMALL INSCRIBED LONGQUAN CELADON MINIATURE TABLE-
SCREEN INCENSE-STICK-HOLDER
Ming Dynasty, possibly 16/17th Century
The rectangular screen supported on an arched-block foot and the pierced
tablet with supporting brackets to each side and pierced with shaped
panels, one side with a lengthy molded inscription with seal, the other with
two short cylindrical incense-stick holders, all under a crackled green glaze
save patches at the feet.
6in (15.2cm) high
$2,500 - 3,500

明 龍泉青釉插屏式香插

For a larger example under an attractive olive-green glaze but molded with
mythical beasts on the central panel, see Green-Longquan Celadon of the
Ming Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2014 pp. 210-211, no. 113.

Another was offered at Sotheby’s New York, 16/17 September 2014, lot
146 depicting a xiniu (mythical beast) gazing at the moon, replacing the
inscription of our example.

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION
104
AN UNUSUAL LONGQUAN CELADON PIERCED CENSER OR
VESSEL STAND
Yuan or Early Ming Dynasty, 14/15th Century 103
The lower section of bombe shape and pierced with five linked oval shaped
apertures dividing five carved palmette-leaf-form legs on a spreading circular
foot and below a waisted rim with pie-crust edge below a conical cylindrical
spreading neck with three rows of hexagonal piercings, fitted with a later
copper pricket.
4 1/2in (11.4cm) high (without copper pricket)

$2,500 - 3,500
元/明早期 十四/十五世紀 龍泉青釉鏤雕香爐/燭台

For another example of a stand similar in decoration to ours and of bombe
shape see Priestley and Ferraro, London, at www.priestleyandferraro, inv.
no. 968, where the authors note that this type of object became popular
during the fourteenth century, was used as a stand for a type of slender-
based, high-mouthed vase called in Chinese a ‘ji character’ vase, after the
shape of the character ji, meaning ‘good fortune’. They cite two examples
of stands related to their example supporting such vases, see Zhu Boqian,
Celadons from Longquan Kiln, Yishujia Chubanshe, Taipei, 1998, pp.
192,193, nos. 165 and 166; and for a larger example in the Topkapi Saray,
Istanbul, see Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum,
Istanbul, A Complete Catalogue, I, Yuan and Ming Dynasty Celadon Wares,
Sotheby’s Publications, London 1986, no. 542.

For a near identical (complete) vessel, though dated to the 15th/16th
century, see Christie’s, New York, 25 March 2011, lot 1648, where it is
noted that openwork Longquan celadon vessels of this type are very rare.
A very similar Longquan celadon example, illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall,
Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pp. 474-5, no. 16:34,
where it is dated c. 1450-1550, is also cited. Finally two others of the same
(complete) form, one without the pierced decoration, the other with some
only in the upper section are also cited by Harrison-Hall, op. cit., the first in
the Eisei Bunko, Japan, the other in the Itsuo Bijitsukan, Japan.

Our example, with its more conical pierced upper-section suggests that it 104
may not have followed the exact shape of the Christie’s example and may
well have been a more truncated type.

FINE CHINESE PAINTINGS & WORKS OF ART | 97