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Lot Essay
This superb celadon vase exemplifies the finest Longquan celadon wares, which have been revered both in China and Japan for more than seven hundred years. At its finest, as on the current vase, Longquan celadon glaze is thick, translucent and has a rich texture reminiscent of jade. The glaze on the current vase also displays the ideal soft bluish-green color, which was so difficult for potters to achieve, but has always been greatly admired by connoisseurs. This particularly fine glaze type is often known by the Japanese name kinuta, which in fact is the term for a mallet, but which refers to mallet-shaped vases, such as the current example, which were imported into Japan in the Southern Song (1127-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) dynasties, and became associated with this, the most desired, glaze color.
Longquan vases with the type of handles seen on the current vessel are rare. The handles are in the shape of yulong (dragon-fish) with fish-like bodies and dragon-like heads. Dragon-fish are mentioned in Chinese literature as early as the Bronze Age, and appear in legends related in the Shanhaijing (Classic of Mountains and Seas). They were included in painted and incised decoration on ceramics of the Tang dynasty, from kilns such as Changsha and Yue, but do not seem to occur in three-dimensional ceramic form until the Song and Liao dynasties. By the Song dynasty, handles such as these depicted a carp in the process of turning into a dragon. This evokes a legend, which dates from at least as early as the Eastern Han dynasty (AD 8 - 220), that tells of the carp swimming up river to the Dragon Gate. If it is successful in leaping over the gate it turns into a dragon. This legend soon came to represent the success of the Chinese scholars, who studied hard to pass the civil service examinations, and if they achieved the highest grade would attain an official post.
As mentioned above, vases with dragon-fish handles are quite rare, and the current vase is even more rare for being unusually large, as well as having an unusually fine glaze. The majority of Longquan mallet vases are significantly smaller. A Longquan mallet vase with dragon-fish handles, excavated in 1983 from a Southern Song tomb in Songyangxian, which is only 16 cm. high, is illustrated by Zhu Boqian (ed.), Celadons from Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, p. 149, no. 116; while the fine example from the Barlow Collection, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is only 16.8 cm. high, see Rose Kerr, Song Dynasty Ceramics, London, 2004, p. 94, no. 95. Further smaller vases of this type include two in the Carl Kempe Collection illustrated by Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm/Güteborg/Uppsala, 1962, p. 51, no. 98 (20 cm. high) and no. 99 (26 cm. high); a third vase in the Njoo Collection (also 26 cm. high) is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Chinese Celadons and Other Related Wares in Southeast Asia, Singapore, 1979, pl. 73, left; and a fourth example (25.7 cm. high) was recovered from the wreck of a vessel which sank off the Sinan coast of Korea in about 1323 on its way to Japan, and is illustrated in Xin'an haidi wenwu (Cultural Relics from the Sinan Seabed), Seoul, 1977, no. 3.
There appear to be only two other published examples of a Longquan mallet-shaped vase with dragon-fish handles that comes close to the imposing size (28.6 cm.) of the current vessel: one is the vase in the Brodie Lodge Collection (28 cm. high) included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition, The Arts of the Sung Dynasty, London, 1960, no. 173, pl. 64, right; the other is the Lord Matsudaira Fumai’s kinuta vase (28.8 cm. high) which was sold at Christie’s New York, 19 March 2008, lot 561.
Longquan vases with the type of handles seen on the current vessel are rare. The handles are in the shape of yulong (dragon-fish) with fish-like bodies and dragon-like heads. Dragon-fish are mentioned in Chinese literature as early as the Bronze Age, and appear in legends related in the Shanhaijing (Classic of Mountains and Seas). They were included in painted and incised decoration on ceramics of the Tang dynasty, from kilns such as Changsha and Yue, but do not seem to occur in three-dimensional ceramic form until the Song and Liao dynasties. By the Song dynasty, handles such as these depicted a carp in the process of turning into a dragon. This evokes a legend, which dates from at least as early as the Eastern Han dynasty (AD 8 - 220), that tells of the carp swimming up river to the Dragon Gate. If it is successful in leaping over the gate it turns into a dragon. This legend soon came to represent the success of the Chinese scholars, who studied hard to pass the civil service examinations, and if they achieved the highest grade would attain an official post.
As mentioned above, vases with dragon-fish handles are quite rare, and the current vase is even more rare for being unusually large, as well as having an unusually fine glaze. The majority of Longquan mallet vases are significantly smaller. A Longquan mallet vase with dragon-fish handles, excavated in 1983 from a Southern Song tomb in Songyangxian, which is only 16 cm. high, is illustrated by Zhu Boqian (ed.), Celadons from Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, p. 149, no. 116; while the fine example from the Barlow Collection, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is only 16.8 cm. high, see Rose Kerr, Song Dynasty Ceramics, London, 2004, p. 94, no. 95. Further smaller vases of this type include two in the Carl Kempe Collection illustrated by Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm/Güteborg/Uppsala, 1962, p. 51, no. 98 (20 cm. high) and no. 99 (26 cm. high); a third vase in the Njoo Collection (also 26 cm. high) is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Chinese Celadons and Other Related Wares in Southeast Asia, Singapore, 1979, pl. 73, left; and a fourth example (25.7 cm. high) was recovered from the wreck of a vessel which sank off the Sinan coast of Korea in about 1323 on its way to Japan, and is illustrated in Xin'an haidi wenwu (Cultural Relics from the Sinan Seabed), Seoul, 1977, no. 3.
There appear to be only two other published examples of a Longquan mallet-shaped vase with dragon-fish handles that comes close to the imposing size (28.6 cm.) of the current vessel: one is the vase in the Brodie Lodge Collection (28 cm. high) included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition, The Arts of the Sung Dynasty, London, 1960, no. 173, pl. 64, right; the other is the Lord Matsudaira Fumai’s kinuta vase (28.8 cm. high) which was sold at Christie’s New York, 19 March 2008, lot 561.