An exceedingly rare Longquan celadon lobed pear-shaped vase, Southern Song dynasty | 南宋 龍泉青釉海棠式瓜棱瓶

Sotheby's London, 13th December 1988, lot 123.

A Japanese private collection.

倫敦蘇富比1988年12月13日，編號123

日本私人收藏

This exquisite vase embodies the ideals of Song aesthetics in its delicately-potted lobed body with elegant and precise outlines created by vertical moulding in two halves, an unusual way of forming at the time. Enveloped in an unctuous jade-like glaze, this lobed vase belongs to a rare group of refined celadon wares made to resemble the fabled guan (official) wares produced in Hangzhou for the imperial court during the Southern Song dynasty. 

A similar Longquan vase has been recovered from a hoard at Jinyu village near Suining in Sichuan province, an area invaded by the Mongols in 1234, to whom the town fell in 1242; see Fūin sareta Nansō tōki ten / Newly Discovered Southern Song Ceramics. A Thirteenth-Century "Time Capsule", Odakū Museum, Tokyo, 1998, cat. no. 17, and again in Zhu Boqian, Longquan yao qingci / Celadons from Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, pl. 18. 

Compare a slightly larger fragmentary guan vase of this shape, unearthed at the Jiaotanxia kiln complex and illustrated in Sekai tōji zenshū / Ceramic Art of the World, Tokyo, 1955, vol. 10, p. 191, fig. 28c; another guan example illustrated in George J. Lee, Selected Far Eastern Art in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 1970, pl. 37; and one in the Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, included in the Museum’s exhibition Chinese Arts of the Sung and Yüan Periods, Tokyo, 1961, cat. no. 189. A further example with a grey body and muted crackled grey-green glaze, considered to have been produced by the Jiaotanxia kilns, is included in James Spencer, Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1990, cat. no. 43. A lobed wall vase of related form was excavated in Hangzhou, illustrated in Ma Yichao, Nansong Hangzhou Xiuneisi guanyao yanjiu / Study on Southern Song Xiuneisi Imperial Kilns Hangzhou, Hangzhou, 2006, p. 148, no. 112.

本瓶作梨形，通體起棱，身似棱瓜，口足外撇若海棠綻放，其線條柔順可人，由兩模分坯垂合而成，為宋朝. 罕見製瓷之法。貫承宋廷質樸古雅之極簡審美情趣，非靈巧精湛之技藝不能致。青釉厚潤如玉，綠中泛藍顯 靜穆，誠宋代龍泉窰佳例。在龍泉窰器中，此瓶之式極為罕見，應屬依據南宋供御之杭州官窰所造。它們器 形端麗，胎質細膩，釉若凝脂，超卓脫俗，媲美宮廷雅物。

四川省遂寧市金魚村，1234年遭蒙軍入侵，1242年被毀，其窖藏出土一形制相似之龍泉窰瓶，圖見《封印さ れた南宋陶磁展》，小田急美術館，東京，1998年，編號17，又見於朱伯謙，《龍泉窰青瓷》，台北，1998 年，圖版18。

器形相似之官窰瓶，參見一例，刊於 George J. Lee，《Selected Far Eastern Art in the Yale University Art Gallery》，紐黑文，1970年，圖版37。東京國立博物館也藏一相近之官窰瓶，尺寸略大，見於《中國宋元美術 展目錄》，東京，1961年，編號189。尚有一例，觀其胎釉，應屬郊壇下官窰所出，收錄在史彬士，《中國歷 代陶瓷選集》，鴻禧美術館，台北，1990年，編號43。杭州且有海棠式瓜棱壁瓶出土，見《南宋杭州修內司 官窰研究》，杭州，2006年，頁148，編號112。