A VERY RARE LONGQUAN CELADON VASE YUAN – MING DYNASTY, 14TH CENTURY | 元至明十四世紀 龍泉青釉日月八卦紋瓶

Collection of Kanō Jihei (1862-1951), 7th generation of Hakutsuru Brewery and founder of Hakutsuru Fine Art Museum, by repute.

Collection of Kōnosuke Matsushita (1894-1989).

傳神戶白鶴酒造株式会社第七代掌舵人及白鶴美術館創辦人嘉納治兵衛（1862-1951年）收藏

松下幸之助（1894-1989年）收藏

From the Yuan dynasty, Longquan potters aimed at adding interest to their monochrome products through complicated methods of forming and decorating. Other Longquan celadon vases of the period with complex handles are known, but the form of the current vase, where the handles are composed of a flattened sun issuing from wispy ruyi clouds, is extremely rare. The only other example appears to be in the Hakutsuru Fine Art Museum, illustrated in Hakutsuru Bijutsukan kanzohin senshu [Collection of the Hakutsuru Fine Art Museum], Kobe, 2018, cat. no. 61. The sun-and-cloud motif also appears on qingbai funerary vases, such as on a pair dated 1293, discovered in Guixi county, illustrated in Dated Qingbai Wares of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 94. The motif is also found as a handle on Yuan dynasty gold cups, as seen on an example in the Meiyintang collection, illustrated by Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2006, vol. 3, no. 23.

The crisp decoration of the bagua motif around the lower body is a more commonly found design motif on Longquan celadon. A tripod incense burner of archaistic lian form, moulded with a band of bagua motifs, assigned to the Yuan dynasty, is illustrated in Zhu Boqian, ed., Celadons from Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, pl. 182. See also an incense burner with bagua motifs sold in our New York rooms, 18th March 2017, lot 1385, from the collection of Brooks and Dorothy Cofield.