A large and impressive 'Longquan' celadon-glazed 'peony' vase, Yuan dynasty, 14th century | 元十四世紀 龍泉窰青釉纏枝牡丹紋大瓶

Collection of Katori Hotsuma (1874-1954).

Japanese Private Collection.

來源：

香取秀真 (1874-1954) 收藏

日本私人收藏

Enveloped in a thick, luminous celadon glaze of sage-green tone, the present vase is testament to the breathtaking craftsmanship at the Longquan kilns in Zhejiang province during the Yuan dynasty. Outstanding in execution, crisp, naturalistic renderings of blooming peonies on lush, curling branches encircle the neck and upper body of the vase, boasting the technical excellence of the potter. The elegant horizontal ribs under the lip echo the slender, upright lappets to the lower body, enclosing the floral registers within and creating a sense of visual balance and harmony.

The Longquan kilns, during the Southern Song dynasty, excelled in creating subtle, understated, mostly monochromatic wares that were favored by the Song imperial court. Yet with the change of the regime in 1279, taste shifted. The Mongol Yuan’s taste for richer, more elaborate ornamentation marked a turn away from the serene to the exuberant, particularly invigorated by the lively blue and white porcelains being produced by the neighboring Jingdezhen kilns in Jiangxi province. Adapting to these changes, the Longquan kilns introduced a range of different techniques such as ostentatiously carved, molded and applied decoration, often in high relief, to compete with the Jingdezhen kilns. Indeed, the introduction was a breath of fresh air to these porcelains that were otherwise minimally adorned. The kilns were able to combine its celebrated jade-like glaze with now lively, delightful designs that suited the Yuan contemporary taste.

A superlative example of its type produced during the 14th century, the present lot belongs to a group of vases which would have been highly treasured and sought after both domestically and abroad. For example, see a closely related vase in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession no. 故瓷003551N000000000), similarly decorated with peonies but with denser design, dated to the first half of the 14th century, and illustrated in Green: Longquan Celadon of the Ming Dynasty / Bilu: Mingdai Longquan yao qing ci, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2009, cat. no. 156 (fig. 1); another, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Tianxia Longquan: Longquan qingci yu quanqiu hua / Longquan of the World: Longquan Celadon and Globalization, vol. 2, Beijing, 2019, cat. no. 105. These vases were most likely treasured offerings that devoted Buddhists placed within temples. Compare the well-known example, of slightly larger size, with a more slender neck, rounded shoulder and waisted foot, from the Sir Percival David Collection, now in the British Museum (accession no. PDF.237). It is dated by inscription and was commissioned by Zhang Jincheng to be placed before the Buddha in the Great Hall of Ritual at Juelin Temple in the second month of autumn of the dingmao year during the Taiding period, corresponding to 1327. At the early fourteenth-century Baita village site within the city limits of Hohhot in Inner Mongolia, similarly decorated, yet smaller temple vases were also discovered. According to Li Zuozhi in his article ‘Huhehaote shi dongjiao chutu de ji jian Yuandai ciqi [A number of Yuan dynasty porcelains unearthed in the eastern suburb of Hohhot city]’, Wenwu, no. 5, 1977, pp 75-77, the superb quality of the porcelains and the close proximity of the site to Baita, these porcelains were used as temple vases within the Daming Temple.

Similarly, these Longquan vases were also highly coveted abroad. See a closely related vase decorated with peonies, excavated in 1975 from the Sinan shipwreck in the Jeungdo Island waters near Sinan County in South Korea. The ship set sail from China in 1323, likely to have been part of a trade fleet between the Ningbo port and the Hakata port of Japan.

Interestingly, the long inscription to the underside of the cover of the Japanese box notes that this vase was in the collection of the Jinsho-ji temple in the Ohmi region of Japan. The note was inscribed by Hotsuma living at that time in Katori-mura and is dated to August 1947. Hotsuma Katori was a renowned Japanese metalwork artist who won the order of cultural merit as the first prize winner, and was also an official in charge of imperial court poetry. Moreover, he was also known as an outstanding researcher of Japanese history and was a professor at the Tokyo Art School (now known as the Tokyo National Art University). His first son, Masahiko Katori, later was prized as a National Living Artist of Japan. In the note, Hotsuma stated that the vase was given to the temple by Shogun Ashikaga during the Muromachi period.

For examples sold at auction, see a closely related vase previously on loan to the Osaka Municipal Museum from 1966 to 2018, and illustrated in Sensei, Bansei and Celadon of Longquan Yao, Kuboso Memorial Museum of Art, Izumi, 1996, cat. no. 76, sold at Christie's New York, 22nd March 2019, lot 1623; another, with a more capacious floral decoration to the body, was formerly in the H. M. Knight Collection and sold in our London rooms, 18th June 1985, lot 85; and lastly, a carved and molded yenyen vase, previously in the Fujita Museum, Osaka, was sold in Christie's New York, 15th March 2017.