.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
At its finest, as on the current vase, Longquan celadon glaze is thick, translucent, and has a rich texture reminiscent of jade. This particulary fine glaze is often known by the Japanese name 'kinuta', which in fact is the term for a mallet, and had come to refer mallet-shaped vases which were imported into Japan in Southern Song and Yuan dynasties, and eventually became associated with this, highly desirable glaze colour.
Compare to a nearly identical vase, save for its intact mouth rim, in the Matsuoka Museum, Tokyo, illustrated in the Inaugural Exhibition catalogue Selected Masterpieces of The Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1975, p. 58, pl. 47. Compare also to a Longquan celadon vase of similar form and decoration, but of smaller size (25 cm.), and with cut horizontal ridges on the neck, recovered from the cargo of a trading vessel that sank off the coast of Sinan, South Korea, in the 1320s, included in the Special Exhibition of Cultural Relics Found off the Sinan Coast, National Museum of Korea, Seoul, 1977, col. pl. 10.
Compare to a nearly identical vase, save for its intact mouth rim, in the Matsuoka Museum, Tokyo, illustrated in the Inaugural Exhibition catalogue Selected Masterpieces of The Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1975, p. 58, pl. 47. Compare also to a Longquan celadon vase of similar form and decoration, but of smaller size (25 cm.), and with cut horizontal ridges on the neck, recovered from the cargo of a trading vessel that sank off the coast of Sinan, South Korea, in the 1320s, included in the Special Exhibition of Cultural Relics Found off the Sinan Coast, National Museum of Korea, Seoul, 1977, col. pl. 10.