南宋 / 元 吉州窰黑釉剔鳳紋梅瓶

the gently flaring body rising from a slightly spreading foot to the rounded shoulder and narrow waisted neck with lipped rim, finely resist-decorated around the exterior with two pairs of confronted phoenix, the male bird to the left descending and the female to the right ascending, each pair divided by swirling cloud scrolls, left in the biscuit against the dark brown ground and with details painted in a brown slip, the foot ring unglazed to reveal the buff stoneware body

The body with restored breaks and areas of in-painting. The foot ring with flake chips from the original firing and two small samples taken for testing.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Jizhou vases decorated with this elaborate phoenix design are rare, and the present piece is particularly notable for its rich black-coffee brown glaze that is in perfect contrast with the two pairs of phoenix in white reserve. The four birds appear animated with the details of the flowing feathers and eyes painted in swift brushwork. A similar vase, in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, is published in Robert D. Mowry, Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell and Partridge Feathers, Cambridge, Mass, 1995, pl. 103; another, illustrated in Nuno de Castro, A Ceramica e a Porcelana Chinesas, Porto, 1992, vol. 1, pl. 169, was sold in our London rooms, 11th December 1990, lot 220; a slightly larger meiping was sold in these rooms, 17th March 2015, lot 181; and a smaller example, decorated with a less elaborate design, was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 4th December 2015, lot 265. 

Mowry, op. cit., p. 253, notes that this vase is a quintessential Song shape which originated from silver bottles, such as the one recovered from a Song tomb dated to 1195 in Jiangpu county, Jiangsu province, and another recovered amongst the cargo of the Chinese merchant ship that sank off the coast of Sinan, Korea, in the early 1320s. Mowry suggests that the Sinan shipwreck silver bottle, which has straight walls, broad and high-set shoulders, and a waisted neck with a slightly flaring lip, is possibly the closest in form to Jizhou vases of this shape.

The dating of this lot is consistent with the result of a thermoluminescence test, Oxford Authentication Ltd., sample no. P114a47.