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A RARE LONGQUAN 'EIGHT IMMORTALS' VASE
ROSEMARY SCOTT
INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC DIRECTOR, ASIAN ART
This remarkable octagonal vase with its distinctive facets and moulded panels belongs to a small and important group of Longquan celadon-glazed vases in this form with similar decoration. This vase is, however, particularly rare in being fully glazed and having small iron oxide spots highlighting the central panels. Only one other vase of similar size, shape and design, including the iron spots appears to have been published. This is in a Japanese collection (illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu 13 Liao Jin Yuan, Tokyo, 1981, pp. 44-45, No. 32) and, like the current example has immortals depicted in all the central panels, and iron brown spots around these panels. A somewhat smaller vase of this type, also with iron spots is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing (illustrated in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan - taoci juan, Taipei, 1993, p. 356, no. 626) (fig. 1). In addition, the current vase and the vases in the Palace Museum and Japan appear to be the only published examples of this type on which the upper panels are shaped like confronted paired fish, rather than being quatrefoil panels . The vases in Beijing and Japan, however, like the other published examples. have central panels which are reserved in biscuit.
Although facetted vases are rare amongst Longquan celadons, facetted forms of other types appeared with greater frequency amongst both Longquan celadon wares and blue and white porcelains in the Yuan dynasty than in the previous Song and Jin dynasties. This popularity of facetted forms may be seen either as a reflection of a contemporary interest in metalwork from west of China's borders - Iran, Syria and Mamluk Egypt, as is often suggested (see M. Medley, Metalwork and Chinese Ceramics, Percival David Foundation Monograph Series No. 2, London, 1972, p. 14), or a revival of an interest in Tang dynasty metalwork. A number of Tang precious metal vessels were made in facetted form, probably as a result of cultural contact with Western and Central Asia. The most famous of these are the octagonal gold cups found in the cargo of the Belitong wreck and in the Hejiacun hoard (discussed by R. Scott in 'A Remarkable Tang Dynasty Cargo', Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 67, 2002-2003, pp. 20-22). While facetted forms were occasionally made in the Song period - for example the octagonal Northern Song early Longquan celadon ewer in the collection of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum (illustrated in Longquan yao qingci, Celadons from Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, p. 87, no. 46) - in the Yuan dynasty a greater variety of facetted ceramic vessels were made. It may be noted that facetted Longquan dishes and bowls were made in the Yuan dynasty (see Longquan yao qingci, Celadons from Longquan Kilns, op. cit., pp. 232-3, nos. 214 and 215, and p. 215, no. 195). It is significant that a wide-necked pear-shaped vase in the collection of the Lushui Museum dating to the Southern Song period (illustrated ibid., p. 152,no. 119) has moulded facetted sides and is fully glazed, like the current Yuan dynasty meiping. The octagonal Yuan dynasty bowl, mentioned above, is also interesting in that the exterior moulded design has reserved panels, but the more extensive moulded decoration the interior is fully glazed.
Brown spots of iron oxide were occasionally used to enhance the surface decoration of Longquan celadon-glazed vessels in the Yuan dynasty. Such spots were added, using a brush, to the surface of the unfired glaze before the pieces were fired. Vessels with this type of ferruginous spotted decoration have traditionally been greatly admired in Japan, and are often referred to in Europe by their Japanese name tobi seiji. Jars and dishes with this type of spotted decoration were among the cargo of the Sinan wreck, which foundered off the coast of Korea en route for Japan in AD 1323 (illustrated in Relics Salvaged from the Seabed off Sinan, Seoul, 1985, p. 74, plate 62, nos. 88 & 89). Such wares were also valued in China, however, as evidenced by the meiping in the Palace Museum Beijing, and the fact that a yi spouted bowl and a tripod flower stand of this type are in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taiwan (see Gugong cangci: Longquan yao, Hong Kong, 1962, p. 54, plate 14, and p. 66, plate 21).
Although the Eight Daoist Immortals were recognised and venerated as a group by the Song and Jin dynasties, it was in the Yuan dynasty that they were popularised in literature and began to appear regularly in paintings and occasionally on the decorative arts. The Yongle Gong (Palace of Eternal Joy) built near the banks of the Yellow River in Shanxi (and moved north in 1959 to Ruicheng to save it being flooded by a new dam project) was built in honour of Lu Dongbin - one of the Eight Immortals, who was believed to have been born nearby - and contains murals depicting the immortals. Yuan dynasty dramas such Yueyang Pavilion; The Bamboo Raft, and Willow Tree in the South of the City all helped to bring the Eight Immortals to prominence. They are, however, relatively rare on Yuan dynasty ceramics, and this group of octagonal Longquan celadon-glazed vases constitutes important surviving evidence of their early appearance in this medium.
Several similar vases, without iron spots, are in international collection. A vase of the same size, shape and with moulded decorative panels depicting the Eight Daoist Immortals is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (illustrated by Y. Mino & K. Tsiang, Ice and Green Clouds: Traditions of Chinese Celadon, Indianapolis, 1986, pp. 202-3, No. 82). There is also a Longquan celadon octagonal meiping in the Percival David Foundation (discussed by R. Scott in Imperial Taste - Chinese Ceramics from the Percival David Foundation, San Francisco, 1989, pp. 48-9, no. 23). On the David example, as on the current vase, each facet bears moulded decoration in three separate panels. On the shoulder the panels contain a single chrysanthemum spray. However, unlike the current vase, on the David meiping the central quatrefoil panels are reserved in biscuit and, unusually, alternately contain a three-flower chrysanthemum spray, or a Daoist immortal among clouds. The Daoist immortal, who holds a double gourd in one hand and a crutch in the other can be identified as Li Tieguai (Iron Crutch Li), one of the Eight Immortals. The lower panels contain a single chrysanthemum spray. A further vase of this type depicting the Eight Daoist Immortals, with a crackled glaze and a reduced foot, is in the collection of the British Museum (illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, volume 5, The British Museum, Tokyo, New York and San Francisco, 1981, col. pl. 75) (see fig. 2). Another of these vases is in the collection of the Zwinger Palace, Dresden (illustrated in Farbige Glasuren auf Porzellan, 1990, no. 11). An octagonal Longquan celadon meiping of this type is also in the collection of the Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona, while a slightly more elongated vase of similar appearance in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, is illustrated by He Li, in Chinese Ceramics, A New Comprehensive Survey, New York, 1996, p. 187, no. 364. An octagonal vase of similar type to the current vase, previously belonging to Chingwah Lee, was sold at Christie's New York, 22 March 1999, lot 271. In the case of this example each facet is moulded in relief and the central panel reserved in the biscuit and containing one of the Eight Daoist Immortals surrounded by trailing clouds.
PROPERTY FROM A JAPANESE PRIVATE COLLECTION
AN IMPORTANT TOBI SEIJI-DECORATED AND MOULDED LONGQUAN CELADON 'EIGHT IMMORTALS' OCTAGONAL MEIPING
YUAN DYNASTY, 14TH CENTURY
Details
AN IMPORTANT TOBI SEIJI-DECORATED AND MOULDED LONGQUAN CELADON 'EIGHT IMMORTALS' OCTAGONAL MEIPING
YUAN DYNASTY, 14TH CENTURY
Well potted with eight-facetted sides above a flared foot, the wide body moulded in relief with the eight Daoist immortals, each standing amidst ruyi-shaped clouds within a bracket-lobed cartouche, dividing floral cartouches above and below, covered with a celadon glaze of deep olive-green tone thinning on the raised moulded edges, applied with iron-brown splashes to the corners and under each figure
9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm.) high, Japanese box
YUAN DYNASTY, 14TH CENTURY
Well potted with eight-facetted sides above a flared foot, the wide body moulded in relief with the eight Daoist immortals, each standing amidst ruyi-shaped clouds within a bracket-lobed cartouche, dividing floral cartouches above and below, covered with a celadon glaze of deep olive-green tone thinning on the raised moulded edges, applied with iron-brown splashes to the corners and under each figure
9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm.) high, Japanese box
Provenance
A Japanese private collection, Kansai, acquired in 1950s
Brought to you by
Aster Ng
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