A LONGQUAN CELADON ‘IMITATION GUAN’ OCTAGONAL BOTTLE VASE, MING DYNASTY
China, 15th to mid-16th century. The compressed globular body supported on a short spreading foot with two circular apertures and rising to a long slender neck with a flared mouth. The shoulder encircled by three bowstrings, the neck with two further bowstrings, covered with a thick, finely crackled, vitreous sea-green glaze darkening in the recesses and thinning at the edges, save for the foot which is partially burnt to orange in the firing.


Provenance
: French trade.

Condition
: Very good condition with expected old wear, traces of use and firing irregularities including dark spots, glaze recesses, and large firing cracks. Minor glaze lines. Intentional crackling to glaze overall. Slightly leaning.

Weight: 878.7 g
Dimensions: Height 24 cm


Starting around 1200, the Longquan kilns began to imitate the Guan wares
produced at Jiaotanxia. The imitations were produced in two types. For the first type, to which the present example belongs, the usual pale gray Longquan clay was employed and the focus was on imitating the thick body, to some extent also the glaze color, and especially the distinct craquelure of Guan wares. Imitation-Guan wares of this category have the burnt-orange coloration at the unglazed foot that is characteristic of Longquan kilns in general. For the second type, the Longquan potters mixed zijintu (purple-gold clay) into the body and induced a widely-spaced craquelure, so that both the glaze and the dark body would conform to the aesthetic qualities of the Guan original.


Literature comparison:

For an earlier and highly important vase of related shape, the group possibly serving as a prototype for the present lot, see a ‘guan’ octagonal vase, dated to the Southern Song dynasty, at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 6 April 2015, lot 1.




明代龍泉青釉仿官窯弦紋八角瓶

中國，十五至十六世紀中葉。折沿，長頸，鼓腹，八角，圈足稍外撇。足上有兩個圓孔。頸部修飾兩道弦紋，肩部有三道弦紋。通體施一層厚厚的、有細開片的玻璃感青色釉，釉層凹陷處顏色變深，邊緣變薄，底足露胎成橘色。


來源：
法國古玩交易。

品相：
狀況很好，有磨損、使用痕跡和燒製不規則，包括黑點、釉面凹陷和大的燒製裂紋，較小的冲線。釉面開片。微微傾斜。

重量：878.7 克
尺寸：高 24 厘米


文獻比較：

一件相近外形的南宋官窰青釉八方弦紋盤口瓶，見香港蘇富比，2015年4月6日，lot 1。