LONGQUAN CELADON RELIEF-DECORATED DOUBLE-GOURD VASE YUAN DYNASTY OR LATER 元或以後 龍泉青釉貼花葫蘆瓶 finely potted with a globular lower section rising to a narrow waist surmounted by a pear-form upper bulb and an upright splayed rim, both the lower and upper bulbs decorated in the round with a lively display of crisply moulded and slip relief decorated scrolling leafy stems issuing luxuriant flower blossoms and tender buds, covered overall with a lustrous, thick sea-green glaze stopping neatly at the foot, the foot rim burnt russet-orange in the firing, with a Japanese wood box (24cm high) Qty: (1) Provenance: Formerly in a Private Japanese collection, acquired in 2003 Note: There are few Longquan celadon relief-decorated double-gourd bottles of this type are known. Two illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, London, 1986, vol. I, nos. 202 and 203, p. 222 (col. pl.), and pp. 287-8. One in the Hatakeyama Memorial Museum of Fine Art, Tokyo, is published in Hatakeyama Hisato, Tsutaetai, bi no kioku, Tokyo, 2011, pl. 32. See also a similar vase from the Dexingshuwu Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th October 1995, lot 679A and again in Sotheby's New York, 18th March 2008, lot 106; a vase of similar form but decorated with scroll of chrysanthemum on the lower bulb and the top with chrysanthemum heads, in the Datong Municipal Museum, Shanxi province, is illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji [Complete series on Chinese ceramics], vol. 10, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 34.