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PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PRIVATE COLLECTION
Lot 12
A MAGNIFICENT AND LARGE OLIVE-GREEN-GLAZED 'LOTUS' VASE AND COVER Northern Qi Dynasty
15 September 2025, 09:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$406,900 inc. premium
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A MAGNIFICENT AND LARGE OLIVE-GREEN-GLAZED 'LOTUS' VASE AND COVER
Northern Qi Dynasty
Robustly potted, the baluster body raised on a tall spreading foot encircled by a band of radiating lotus petals, the lower body decorated with slender chicken-headed columns leading to eight roundels variously containing lotus flower heads and mythical animals, all beneath two relief registers of lotus lappets above tiger heads issuing acanthus leaves, the high shoulder applied with three strap handles, rising to a gently flaring neck with two registers of cartouches containing the image of the Buddha and floral sprays alternated with lion masks, all covered under an olive-green glaze, the domed cover decorated with eight acanthus leaves radiating from a bud-shaped finial.
25 5/8in (65cm) high; fitted box
Robustly potted, the baluster body raised on a tall spreading foot encircled by a band of radiating lotus petals, the lower body decorated with slender chicken-headed columns leading to eight roundels variously containing lotus flower heads and mythical animals, all beneath two relief registers of lotus lappets above tiger heads issuing acanthus leaves, the high shoulder applied with three strap handles, rising to a gently flaring neck with two registers of cartouches containing the image of the Buddha and floral sprays alternated with lion masks, all covered under an olive-green glaze, the domed cover decorated with eight acanthus leaves radiating from a bud-shaped finial.
25 5/8in (65cm) high; fitted box
Footnotes
北齊 青釉堆貼帶蓋蓮花尊
Provenance:
The Sze Yuan Tang collection, acquired in Hong Kong circa 1980s-1990s
Bonhams London, 9 November 2017, lot 13
來源：
思源堂舊藏，約 1980-1990 年代購自香港
倫敦邦瀚斯，2017 年 11 月 9 日，拍品編號 13
The commanding presence and finely sculpted details have made the present lot among the best of the Northern Qi dynasty vases. The pale olive-green glaze and the earthenware body suggests that it belongs to the group of low-fired examples, as opposed to the high-fired stoneware body with celadon glaze. According to Suzanne G. Valenstein, Cultural Convergence in the Northern Qi Period: A Flamboyant Chinese Ceramic Container: a Research Monograph, New York, 2007, p. 20, '... as of this writing, there is little firm archaeological evidence concerning the kilns that produced the two groups of elaborately decorated ceramic considered here.'
Similar vases of baluster form with lotus petal decoration and appliqué roundels exist in museum collections around the world. Compare a covered vase unearthed from the Feng family cemetery complex in Jingxian, Hebei province, now in the National Museum of China, illustrated by James C.Y. Watt, China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD, New York, 2004, p. 248, pl. 145, noted by the author that 'This type of high-fired porcelaneous ware with carved and appliqué decoration has been found at sixth-century sites in both North China and the Nanjing area in the south. It is likely that it was produced in Hebei province, where the majority of the known examples have been found.'
Two other celadon-glazed vases with similar decorations, unearthed in 1948 from the Feng family cemetery, are illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelain of the Jin and Tang Dynasties, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 61, no. 56 and pp. 62-63, no. 57.
Compare also the vase of smaller size from the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, illustrated in Special Exhibition: Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 1994, no. 96. Another vase of smaller size from the collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, is illustrated by Valenstein, op. cit., p. 95.
Three closely-related vessels with crisp appliqué and design elements similar to the present lot, from the tomb of Lou Rui (d. 570) in Taiyuan, are illustrated by James C.Y. Watt, op. cit., p. 245, pl. 139-141, noted by the author that due to Lou Rui's wealth and his close association to the founding imperial family of the Northern Qi, the three vessels must have been made by the best craftsmen of his time.
The results of the thermoluminescence testing are consistent with the suggested dating of this lot, Oxford Authentication sample No. C109g14, 23 May 2009.