China, late 15th to mid-16th century. Each nicely potted with a pear-shaped eight-lobed body supported on a short foot and rising to a narrow neck with a flared rim, covered overall in a rich bubble-suffused glaze of sea-green tone pooling elegantly in the recesses and thinning at the edges, stopping neatly just above the foot, the unglazed foot rim revealing the white ware partially burnt to orange in the firing.

Provenance: From a French private collection, assembled in Hong Kong before 1990.
Condition: Excellent condition with minor wear and firing flaws.

Weight: 254.6 g and 258.8 g
Dimensions: Height 14.5 cm and 14.8 cm

Expert's note: These exquisite vases embody the ideals of Song aesthetics in their delicately potted lobed bodies with elegant and precise outlines, originally created by vertical molding in two halves, an unusual way of forming at the time. Enveloped in an unctuous jade-like glaze, this pair of lobed vases belongs to a rare group of refined celadon wares, made during the later Ming dynasty, and modeled closely after guan ware prototypes, created at the Jiaotanxia kilns in Zhejiang area during the 12th century. One such prototype is a guan vase of identical form, 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. Compare also a guan vase formerly in the Eugene Fuller collection and now in the Seattle Art Museum, accession number 69.81.