7 1/8 x 4 3/8 in (18 x 11 cm)

Longquan Celadon Twin-Handled Vase

Dimensions: H: 7 in (18 cm); W: 4 3/8 in (11 cm)

This refined twin-handled vase exemplifies the supreme aesthetic of Longquan celadon, the celebrated greenware of the Longquan kilns in southern Zhejiang province that flourished from the Northern Song through the Ming dynasty and produced some of the most prized celadons in the history of Chinese ceramics. The vessel rises from a low foot through a generously rounded body to a tall waisted neck flanked by a pair of fish-shaped or stylized animal-head handles set to the upper neck, the silhouette descended from archaic bronze prototypes and providing an architecturally taut form for the dramatic celadon glaze.

The vessel is dressed in the celebrated Longquan 'powder green' (fenqing) or 'plum green' (meizi qing) celadon glaze, a thick semi-opaque glaze of luminous green-blue tonality that is the unmistakable signature of the finest Longquan production, the glaze pooling subtly along the curves of the body and thinning along the handles and the rim, where the body shows through as faint warm tonality. The glaze surface is smooth and unctuous in the manner of jade, the visual analogy to which was the conscious aim of Longquan kiln masters, and the unglazed foot rim fires to a characteristic warm orange-red tonality from the iron-rich body. The matte glaze surface possesses a tactile depth that distinguishes the finest Longquan production from later imitations.

Longquan celadon was exported across maritime East Asia and the Indian Ocean world, and finely potted twin-handled vases of this kind have been recovered from shipwreck cargoes and recorded among the trade goods despatched to the Middle East, where comparable examples survive in the Topkapı Saray and Ardabil Shrine collections. Examples are also preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and the Sir Percival David Collection at the British Museum, where they remain among the most desirable categories of Song-Yuan celadon in the international market.