AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT AND RARE 'GUANYAO' HU-SHAPED VASE SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY, 12TH CENTURY

modelled after an archaic bronze hu with well-rounded pear-shaped body of oval section, raised on a high, splayed oval foot, tapering towards a rectangular neck with everted lip, flanked by two tubular lugs, applied over three raised ribs, with another rib around the widest part, the dark brown body thickly applied overall with a luscious glaze of a misty bluish sea-green, suffused overall with a luminous crackle evoking an effect like superimposed flakes of translucent ice, the neck and lugs accentuated by darker edges where the body shines through and the footring revealing the fine-grained dark stoneware



in Japanese padded purple silk cloth, ribbon-tied paulownia-wood box and cover, ribbon-tied varnished-wood outer box and cover, and brown cotton furoshiki with inscribed wooden tag

Collection of Mrs. Alfred Clark.
Sotheby's London, 25th March 1975, lot 101.
Eskenazi Ltd, London.
Mayuyama & Co. Ltd, Tokyo.

Ju and Kuan Wares, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1952, cat. no. 34.

Sō Gen no bijutsu [The art of Song and Yuan], Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Osaka, 1978, cat. no. 1-23.

Chūgoku no tōji [Chinese ceramics], Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 1994, cat. no. 175.

Tōyō tōji meihin ten [Exhibition of masterpieces of Oriental ceramics], Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Nagoya, 1994, cat. no. 48.

Sō ji [Song ceramics], Tobu Museum of Art, Tokyo; The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka; Hagi Uragami Museum, Hagi; 1999, cat.no. 58.

Chūgoku tōji. Bi wo miru kokoro/Chinese ceramics, Enlightening through Beauty, Sen-Oku Hakuko Kan, Kyoto, 2006, cat. no. 31.

Nan Sō no seiji//Heavenly Blue: Southern Song Celadons, Nezu Museum, Tokyo, 2010, cat. no. 61.

G. St. G. M. Gompertz, Chinese Celadon Wares, London, 1958, pl. 53; rev. ed. 1980, pl. 60.

Kōyama Fujiō, Tōki Kōza [Lectures on ceramics], vol. 6: Chūgoku II. Sō [China II. Song], Tokyo, 1971, pl. 128.

Ryūsen Shūhō/Mayuyama, Seventy Years, Tokyo, 1976, vol. I, pl. 466.

Hasebe Gakuji, Sekai tōji zenshū/Ceramic Art of the World, vol. 12: Sō/Sung Dynasty, Tokyo, 1977, pl. 71.

Kōyama Fujiō, Tōji taikei [Outlines of ceramics], vol. 36: Seiji [Celadon], Tokyo, 1978, pl. 16.

Sō Gen no bijutsu [The art of Song and Yuan], Tokyo, 1980, pl. 8.

Chūgoku tōji no hassennen [8,000 years of Chinese ceramics], Tokyo, 1992, pl. 23.

Imai Atsushi, Chūgoku no tōji [Chinese ceramics] vol. 4: Seiji [Celadon], Tokyo, 1997, pl. 56.

Hanaire. Chadōgu no sekai [Flower vases. The world of tea utensils], Tokyo, 2000, p. 34.

Regina Krahl, 'Famous Brands and Counterfeits. Problems of Terminology and Classification in Song Ceramics', Song Ceramics. Art History, Archaeology and Technology, Colloquies on Art & Archaeology in Asia, no. 22, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 2004, p. 72, fig. 12.

This exceptionally rare vase has restoration to the front face, including a 4 x 3.5cm., V-shaped section which has been broken out and re-inserted at the rim, together with restoration to an associated previously rivetted crack extending a further 5cm., down the neck, a 1 x 0.5cm., flake to the left side bottom edge of the foot and an associated 5mm., wide bruise and tiny flake to the bottom of the foot; the rear face has restoration to a 7 x 5.5cm., V-shaped section of the rim which has been broken out and re-inserted with some loss to the original material, together with restoration to associated previously rivetted cracks, one two-pointed crack runnig 14cm., down and around to the side of the body meeting another 17cm., vertical crack running down from the neck towards the foot, the other fork running 5cm., down and to the side of the body, together with another crack extending from these down over the footring into the middle of the foot with an associated 5 x 2cm., area of restoration to the corner of the foot. Overall these restorations do not significantly detract from the overall aesthetic and rich crackled glossy glaze.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The National Palace Museum, Taiwan, preserves four comparable vases of bronze form, one in form of a bronze zun with regular crackle, and three in form of bronze hu like the present piece, but each of different proportions, see Song Guan yao tezhan/Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Sung Dynasty Kuan Ware, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1989, cat. nos 2 and 8-10. One of these hu is of massive size, with outsized tubular lugs; the other two are closer to the present vase: one also showing ice crackle is engraved with a Qianlong inscription on the base (fig. 1), the other has regular crackle (fig. 2). A fifth 'guan' vase in Taipei, in form of a much smaller jade cong, was included in the exhibition Qianxi nian Songdai wenwu dazhan/China at the Inception of the Second Millennium: Art and Culture of the Sung Dynasty, 960-1279, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2000, cat. no. I-31.

 

The Palace Museum, Beijing, holds three 'guan' vases, see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelain of the Song Dynasty, Beijing, 1996, vol. 2,  pls 1-3: one magnificent larger pear-shaped one with horizontal ribs, with regular crackle; one plain pear-shaped one, also of larger size, with superb ice crackle; and one smaller vase of hu shape, but with an opaque milky glaze and probably of somewhat later date.

 

Other outstanding guan vases, but neither in the shape of archaic bronzes, nor with ice crackle, include a mallet-shaped piece in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., published in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol.9, Tokyo, 1981, col.pl. I; and the 'Jade Stream Garden Vase' (yu jin yuan guan ping), sold in these rooms, 11^th April 2008, lot 2601.

 

For the origin of this shape compare a bronze hu of the Shang period, of similar form but with bands of decoration between the lugs and around the foot, in Robert W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington, D.C., 1987, pl. 59, and a plain round hu with three rings, but without lugs, ibid., fig. 60.1; and a burnished black pottery hu and cover also of the Shang period, excavated at Anyang and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated in Okazaki Takashi, Sekai tōji zenshū/Ceramic Art of the World, vol. 10, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 44.

 

Fig. 1

'Guan' ware vase with 'ice crackle' in form of a hu, engraved on the base with a poem by the Qianlong Emperor, height 26.7 cm

Southern Song dynasty

National Palace Museum, Taipei

 

Fig. 2

'Guan' ware vase in form of a hu, height 24.1 cm

Southern Song dynasty

National Palace Museum, Taipei