A rare 'Longquan' celadon-glazed mallet vaseSouthern Song dynasty南宋 龍泉窰青釉魚龍耳紙槌瓶Height 9 in., 23 cmFor more information on and additional videos for this lot, please contact serina.wei@sothebys.comIn response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.Sotheby's New York, 31st May 1994, lot 274.European Private Collection.Sotheby's New York, 23rd March 2011, lot 536.紐約蘇富比1994年5月31日，編號274 歐洲私人收藏 紐約蘇富比2011年3月23日，編號536Celadon vases of this 'mallet' shape are among the most sought-after Longquan vessels. It has been suggested by several scholars that this shape, despite resembling a paper mallet, may in fact have been introduced to China as a glass vase or bottle from the Islamic west, possibly Iran. An Islamic glass bottle vase, probably Nishapur, North East Iran, was among the treasures found in the tomb of the Princess of Chen, Liao dynasty, dating to no later than 1018 and illustrated in Grand View: Special Exhibition of Ju Ware from the Northern Sung Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2007, cat. no. 25, fig. 2. Fragments of glass vessels of this shape were found in 1997 among the excavated material from the cargo of the Intan shipwreck excavated off the Indonesian coast. This ship is believed to date to the Northern Song period. A similar vase of this type in the Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya, is illustrated in Heavenly Blue: Southern Song Celadon, Nezu Museum, Tokyo, 2010, cat. no. 23. The same exhibition catalogue illustrates two other related vases, ibid., cat. nos 24 and 25, the latter of which is from the Seikado Bunko Art Museum, Tokyo. A vase with similar handles from the collection of Enid and Brodie Lodge, included in the Mostra d'Arte Cinese / Exhibition of Chinese Art, Palazzo Ducale, Venice, 1954, cat. no. 422, was sold in our London rooms, 8th July 1975, lot 91. A mallet vase with dragon-fish handles excavated in 1983 from a Southern Song tomb at Songyang county is illustrated in Zhu Boqian, ed., Celadons from Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, p. 149, no. 116. Another similar example is the kinuta vase in the National Museum of Asian Art, Washington D.C., illustrated in The Freer Gallery of Art, I: China, Washington, D.C., 1972, pl. 89. Two other related vases were recovered from a shipwreck off the coast of Korea in 1323, and included in Special Exhibition of Cultural Relics Found off Sinan Coast, National Museum of Korea, Seoul, 1977, col. pl. 3, which along with pls 4 and 5, form part of a small group of vessels that are believed to predate the ship's voyage by some decades.Among mallet vases with handles, the most common is of phoenix form; compare several examples including one ranked as National Treasure in Japan and one as Important Cultural Property in Yutaka Mino and Katherine R. Tsiang, Ice and Green Clouds: Traditions of Chinese Celadon, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, 1987, no. 78 and figs 78 a-e, where the authors note that vases of this type have been valued in Japan since the Kamakura period. Similar examples of mallet vases with phoenix-form handles sold at auction include one from the Edward T. Chow collection sold in our London rooms, 16th December 1980, lot 300; another in our Hong Kong rooms, 31st October 1994, lot 530; one in our London rooms, 5th November 2008, lot 396; and one in these rooms, 23rd March 2011, lot 536.