A RARE LONGQUAN CELADON 'KINUTA' MALLET VASE YUAN DYNASTY |

well potted with a cylindrical body rising to a canted shoulder and sweeping up to a tall gently tapering neck surmounted by a wide everted rim with an upturned lip, the neck flanked by a pair of handles moulded and carved in the form of serpentine dragon-fish, each crisply rendered lively and detailed with scales, fins and eyes, covered overall save for the unglazed footrim with an even sea-green glaze thinning to reveal the pale grey body at the extremities, the hand-pared footrim draining to a paler tone at the edges

Collection of Sakamoto Gorō (1923-2016).

Kaikan tokubetsu shuppin seihin senshu [A special inaugural exhibition], Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka, 2005, cat. no. 73.

The vase is in good overall condition. There is a hairline crack to the inner rim, measuring approx. 1.3 cm (0.5 cm on the exterior). There is also expected light surface wear and shallow nicks to the foot, as well as typical firing imperfections, including light crackles and fritting.
"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."

Celadon vases of this 'mallet' shape which is generally known under the Japanese term kinuta, are among the most sought-after Longquan vessels.  It has been suggested by several scholars that this shape, despite resembling a paper mallet, may in fact have been introduced to China as a glass vase or bottle from the Islamic west, possibly Iran. An Islamic glass bottle vase, probably Nishapur, North East Iran, was among the treasures found in the tomb of the Princess of Chen, Liao dynasty, dating to no later than 1018 and illustrated in Grand View: Special Exhibition of Ju Ware from the Northern Sung Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2007, cat. no. 25, fig. 2. Fragments of glass vessels of this shape were found in 1997 among the excavated material from the cargo of the Intan shipwreck excavated off the Indonesian coast. This ship is believed to date to the Northern Song period. Furthermore according to the Yi Jian Zhi by the Song scholar official Hong Mai, the emperor Huizong owned a collection of imported glass. For further discussion see National Palace Museum, China at the Inception of the Second Millennium, Art and Culture of Sung Dynasty, 960-1279, p. 121, fig. 2. Kinuta vases with dragon-fish, feiyu, handles are rare and particularly so in this large size. The mythological feiyu, considered a good omen, was a popular motif during the Yuan dynasty and may well have travelled along nomadic paths, originating in the ancient Near East through Central Asia into China. A Yuan dynasty gold cup with feiyu handles in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, exhibited in The Legacy of Genghis Kahn, Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2002, p. 18, fig. 11, cat. no. 139, attests to the association with fine decorative wares.

A vase, very similar to the present but of smaller dimension, in the Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya, is illustrated in Heavenly Blue: Southern Song Celadon, Nezu Museum, 2010, no. 23. The same exhibition illustrates two others closely related vases, ibid., nos 24 and 25 which is from the Seikado Bunko Art Museum, Tokyo and also included in a tour exhibition in Japan and illustrated again in Longquan Ware: Chinese Celadon Beloved of the Japanese, Aichi Prefecture Museum of Ceramics, 2012, cat. no. 22. A vase with the same type of handle and similar size from the collection of Enid and Brodie Lodge, included in the Mostra d'Arte Cinese/Exhibition of Chinese Art, Palazzo Ducale, Venice, 1954, cat. no. 422, and in five other exhibitions, sold in our London rooms, 8th July 1975, lot 91. A mallet vase with dragon-fish handles excavated in 1983 from a Southern Song tomb at Songyang county is illustrated in Zhu Boqian, ed., Celadons from Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, p. 149, no. 116. Another similar example of note is the kinuta vase in the Freer Sackler Galleries, Washington D.C., illustrated in The Freer Gallery of Art, I: China, Washington, D.C., 1972, pl. 89. Two other vases of slightly smaller size with dragon-fish handles were recovered from a shipwreck off the coast of Korea in 1323, and included in Special Exhibition of Cultural Relics Found off Sinan Coast, National Museum of Korea, Seoul, 1977, col. pl. 3, which along with pls 4 and 5, form part of a small group of vessels which are believed to predate the ship's voyage by some decades.

There are variants to the present form. Vases of the mallet form were made without handles such as the superb example sold in our London rooms, 8th November 2006, lot 54, currently on loan from the Xiling collection to the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Boston and published in Sekai toji zenshu/Ceramic Art of the World, vol. 12, Tokyo, 1977, pl. 207. Another of this type without handles is in the Palace Collection, Beijing and illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), Hong Kong, 1996, no. 100.

Among mallet vases with handles, the most common is of phoenix-form; compare several fine examples including one ranked as Japan’s National Treasure and one as its Important Cultural Property in Yutaka Mino and Katherine R. Tsiang, Ice and Green Clouds: Traditions of Chinese Celadon, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1987, no. 78 and figs 78 a-e, where the authors note that vases of this type have been valued in Japan since the Kamakura period. Similar examples of mallet vase with phoenix-form handles at auction include one from the Edward T. Chow collection sold in our London rooms, 16th December 1980, lot 300; another in these rooms, 31st October 1994, lot 530; one in our London rooms, 5th November 2008, lot 396; and one in our New York rooms, 23rd March 2011, lot 536.