YUAN DYNASTY (1279-1368)

Slender necked vases are rare in Jun ware. There is a plain blue pear-shaped vase in the collection of the National Palace Museum, which has a somewhat less flared neck than the current example and is illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum - Chün Ware of the Sung Dynasty, Cafa Company, Hong Kong, 1961, pp. 34-5, pls. 3a & b. A further plain blue-glazed pear-shaped vase with flaring neck is in the collection of the Percival David Foundation, London and is published in Illustrated Catalogue of Tung, Ju, Kuan, Chün, Kuang-tung & Glazed I-Hsing Wares, London, 1953, no. 80, where it is dated to the Song dynasty. A third plain blue slender-necked pear-shaped vase is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing and is illustrated in Zhongguo Taoci Quanji, 12, Junyao, Bi-no-bi, Kyoto, 1983, no. 8, where it too is dated to the Song dynasty. All these vases are of similar size to the current example. A slightly smaller vase in the collection of the Datong City Museum, Shanxi province is illustrated in the same volume, no. 55, where it is dated to the Yuan dynasty. This vase shares with the current example a more widely flaring mouth, as does a much smaller pear-shaped vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated as no. 44.

Very few examples of slender-necked, pear-shaped vases with copper splash decoration are known, with the exception of the famous splashed vase in the Percival David Foundation illustrated by R. Scott in Imperial Taste - Chinese Ceramics from the Percival David Foundation, San Francisco/Los Angeles, 1989, p. 38, no. 14.