J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York

This vessel shape was produced for ritual use on Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist altars.  In Chinese texts this form of vessel is sometimes referred to as “daji ping” because the shape in profile resembles the Chinese character ji (“good fortune”), and so these vessels are called “vases of good fortune.”

A larger Longquan celadon vase of very similar form in the Palace Museum, Beijing is illustrated in Zhongguo Wenwu Jinghua Daquan, Taocijuan (Compendium of Chinese Archaeological Treasures, Ceramics), Hong Kong, 1993, no. 623, p. 355.

A Longquan vase of very similar form and size, together with an open-sided celadon stand, excavated in 1984 at Qingtian county, Zhejiang province, is illustrated in Zhongguo Taoci Quanji: Yuan, Vol. 10 (The Complete Works of Chinese Ceramics: Yuan), Shanghai, 2000, no. 39, p. 70, with caption on p. 223.

Three misfired Longquan celadon vases of this form fused together in the kiln, now in the collection of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, recently exhibited in Geneva at the Musée des Collection Baur and in Paris at the Musée Cernuschi, are illustrated in the catalogue entitled Céladon: Gres des musées de la province du Zhejiang, Chine, Paris, 2005, no. 83, p. 185.

Compare also the very well potted Longquan vase of this form in the Gotoh Art Museum, Tokyo, shown at the Kuboso Memorial Museum of Art, Izumi and illustrated in the catalogue entitled Tokubetsuten Sensei Bansei to Ryusenyo no Seiji (Special Exhibition: Sensei, Bansei and Celadon of Longquan Yao), Izumi, Japan, 1996, no. 27, p. 46, described as Southern Song-Yuan dynasty.