33Longquan celadon vases of this shape, undoubtedly inspired by contemporaneous metal ware, are extremely rare and only three appear to have been published. The closest comparison is the vase in the Palace Museum collection, Beijing, illustrated in Yuan dai ciqi, Beijing, 1998, p. 259, pl. 447 (fig. 1). The Beijing example is carved with a classic chrysanthemum scroll, instead of a peony scroll. The two other examples are carved with alternating fruiting and flowering sprigs within rectangular cartouches around the globular body, the first is illustrated in op. cit., p. 259, no. 446 and again in Sekai Toji Zenshu, Shogakukan Series, vol. 13, Japan, 1981, p. 181, pl. 150 (fig. 2). The other is in the Palace Museum, Taipei, and was included in the special exhibition, Age of the Great Khan, Pluralism in Chinese Art and Culture Under the Mongols, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1991, p. 143, pl. IV-39 (fig. 3).

The decorative technique on the primary band, carved by removing the ground reserving the floral scroll in low relief is considerably more difficult and time-consuming than either incising a design onto the surface of the vessel, or applying the sides with sprig-moulded elements. An example of this same carved technique is seen on the massive Longquan vase in the Percival David Foundation, which appears to be a special commission and bears a dedicatory inscription dated to AD 1327, illustrated by R. Scott, Imperial Taste: Chinese Ceramics from the Percival David Foundation, San Francisco, 1989, pp. 50-1, no. 24.