SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY (1127-1279)

This charming vase, with its distinct lobed shape and elegant profile, is modelled closely after its guan ware prototypes, made contemporaneously at the Jiaotanxia kilns in Zhejiang area. One such prototype is a guan vase of identical form and similar size, unearthed at the Jiaotanxia kilns, illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu-Song, vol. 12, Tokyo, 1977, p. 225, fig. 79. Another smaller Jiaotanxia vase of the same form is illustrated by James Spencer, Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1990, cat. no. 43.
A Longquan vase of the same type was excavated in 1991 from a Southern Song hoard dated 1236 at Jinyucun in Sichuan province. See Newly Discovered Southern Song Ceramics - A Thirteenth-Century “Time Capsule”, Tokyo, 1998, p. 27, no. 17. Compare also to a Longquan wall vase of identical form but with a flat back, from the Falk Collection and sold at Christie’s New York, 15 October 2001, lot 477.