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Lot Essay
The mallet form vase, or kinuta vase, was greatly admired by Japanese as well as Chinese patrons during the Song and Yuan periods for the fine quality of its celadon glaze. Indeed, the name kinuta, although referring to a shape, has come to be specifically associated with the most esteemed Longquan glaze colour. This has been described by G. St. G. M. Gompertz as 'ethereal bluish green', by Chinese connoisseurs as fen qing, and the vases overall have been described by Japanese connoisseurs as 'graceful forms and dripping blue-green glaze'. See G. St. G. M. Gompertz Chinese Celadon Wares, London, 1958, p. 51.
The mallet vase shape is known in three main variants from the Longquan kilns. Very rarely it was made without handles, as in the case of a vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing. See Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 112, no. 100. The majority of these vases, however, were made with two elaborate handles, either in the form of phoenixes, as exemplified by another vase in the Beijing Palace Museum, ibid. p. 110, no. 98, or in the form of fish as in the case of the current vase. The variant with fish handles is much rarer than that with phoenix handles. The fish have dragon heads, and this has led to them being called dragon handles or dragon-fish handles by some authors.
A mallet vase with dragon-fish handles was excavated in 1983 from a Southern Song tomb at Congyangxian. See Zhu Boqian, ed., Celadons from Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, p. 149, no. 116. Another larger example sold at Christie's New York, 19 March 2008, lot 561.
The mallet vase shape is known in three main variants from the Longquan kilns. Very rarely it was made without handles, as in the case of a vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing. See Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 112, no. 100. The majority of these vases, however, were made with two elaborate handles, either in the form of phoenixes, as exemplified by another vase in the Beijing Palace Museum, ibid. p. 110, no. 98, or in the form of fish as in the case of the current vase. The variant with fish handles is much rarer than that with phoenix handles. The fish have dragon heads, and this has led to them being called dragon handles or dragon-fish handles by some authors.
A mallet vase with dragon-fish handles was excavated in 1983 from a Southern Song tomb at Congyangxian. See Zhu Boqian, ed., Celadons from Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, p. 149, no. 116. Another larger example sold at Christie's New York, 19 March 2008, lot 561.