A SMALL GE-TYPE HANDLED VASE YUAN – MING DYNASTY |

the baluster body rising from a splayed foot to a gently waisted neck flanked by a pair of tubular handles, applied overall with a soft grey glaze suffused with a matrix of dark and golden cracklesThe dating of this vase is consistent with the results of the thermoluminescence (TL) test of the Chinese University of Hong Kong Yeung Shui Sang Laboratory for Thermoluminescence of Ancient Ceramics, serial no. 01777.

There are chips all around the footrim‎ revealing a buff-coloured body.
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This elegant small vase boasts an intricate web of irregular crackles which creates an attractive abstract design. In both its glaze and form, it was inspired by the celebrated ge wares of the Song dynasty, one of the most enigmatic ceramic wares. The crackled glazes of ge were made at different kilns in Longquan, Zhejiang province, and fragments of ge ware were also discovered at the Laohudong kiln site in Hangzhou, which produced guan wares for the Southern Song Imperial court. The reverence for these crackled glazes was such that attempts at recreating them were made at the Imperial kiln factory at Jingdezhen from the early Ming through the Qing dynasty.

Compare a guan vase of octagonal hu shape, attributed to the Yuan dynasty, in the Palace Museum, included in the Museum’s exhibition Precious as the Morning Star: 12th-14th Century Celadons in the Qing Court Collection, Taipei, 2016, cat. no. IV-29; and a hu with mask handles, attributed to the Ming period, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Guan Kilns, Beijing, 2016, pl. 42, together with a larger example modelled with a flaring foot, pl. 40. 

See also three vases of slightly narrower form, attributed to the Southern Song period, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Selection of Ge Ware, Beijing, 2017, pls 5-7.