A rare pair of 'Longquan' celadon-glazed mallet vases, Southern Song dynasty | 南宋 龍泉窰青釉雙鳳耳盤口瓶一對

John Sparks Ltd., London, 31st March 1961 (£750).

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John Sparks Ltd.，倫敦，1961年3月31日 (750 英磅)

Longquan mallet form, or kinuta, vases became popular among the elites in the Southern Song period, (see a piece excavated from a Southern Song tomb in Zhu Boqian, Celadons from Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, p. 149, no. 116); and they even served the Southern Song court (see Shen Qionghua, "Discussion on Relationship between Longquan Kiln and Government in Song Dynasty", in Tianxia longquan longquan qingci yu quanqiu hua / Longquan of the World Longquan Celadon and Globalization, vol. II, Beijing, 2019, p. 342. Fine celadon pieces like this were also treasured at court as antiques in later dynasties as evidenced by a similar vase formerly in the Qing imperial collection and once stored in Yangxin dian (Hall of Mental Cultivation), illustrated in Tianxia longquan, op.cit., pl. 9, p. 40.

In Japan, they were so highly regarded that the term designating their mallet shape, kinuta, became a general term for a fine celadon glaze. Several fine examples are in Japan even ranked as National Treasure or Important Cultural Property, see Yutaka Mino and Katherine R. Tsiang, Ice and Green Clouds: Traditions of Chinese Celadon, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, 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 (1192 - 1333); compare also two similar mallet vases with phoenix-form handles, one sold in our London rooms, 5th November 2008; and one in our New York rooms, 23rd March 2011, lot 536.