A rare 'Longquan' celadon-glazed tazza, Yuan dynasty

Japanese Private Collection.

British Private Collection.

Surviving examples of this understated ritual form are extremely rare. Compare a closely related example in the British Museum (accession no. 1973,0726.313) in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pl. 16:9, where the author notes that these were "used for food offerings"; and another in the Kuboso Memorial Museum of Art, Izumi in Sensei, Bansei to Ryūsen'yō no seiji : tokubetsuten, Osaka, 1996, cat. no. 100.