BLACK-GLAZED RUSSET-SPLASHED BOTTLE VASE, YUHUCHUN PING
NORTHERN SONG TO JIN DYNASTY
北宋至金 黑釉鐵鏽花玉壺春瓶elegantly potted with a pear-form body supported on a short flared foot rising to everted mouth, covered in a thick black glaze painted freely with stylised foliage in splashes of russet
26cm high
Private Scottish collection, Scottish Borders. The owner had an enduring friendship with Dr Kenneth Lawley (1937-2023), a lifelong Asian art collector and a significant part of whose collection was sold in this saleroom, 3 November 2023, lot 1-95. Dr Lawley was close to the collection offered in this sale, indeed some of the items came directly from him. He would share his research, his catalogue, and his admiration of these items with the owner, as a natural consequence of their friendship. Acquired from Dr Kenneth Lawley, 20 June 2003, with an original invoice, receipt, and correspondence. Exhibited: Early Oriental Ceramics, MacRobert Centre, University of Stirling, 5-25 July 1973, no. 28. Illustrated in the exhibition photograph (circled). 
For the discussion on similar long-necked, pear-shaped bottles with russet-splash decorations, see Robert D. Mowry, Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers: Chinese Brown- and Black-Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Cambridge, 1995, pp. 159-160. In which a related yuhuchun vase painted with two stylised birds in flight, Jin dynasty, is illustrated on pt. 52.