A RARE AND UNUSUAL LIGHT-BLUE-GREEN GLAZED VASE WITH THE EIGHT DAOIST IMMORTALS

Estimated Value:

4.000 € - 6.000 €

Schätzpreis:

6.500 €

Description:

China, Yuan/ early Ming dynasty
H. 36,2 cm
Collection Dr. Rainer Kreissl (1924 - 2005) - Important South German private collection, collected before 2000
Although the Eight Daoist Immortals were recognised and revered as a group as early as the Song and Jin dynasties, it was not until the Yuan dynasty that they were popularised in literature and began to appear regularly in paintings and occasionally in decorative arts. The Yongle Gong (Palace of Eternal Joy), built near the bank of the Yellow River in Shanxi (and moved to Ruicheng in 1959 to prevent it from being flooded by a new dam project), was built in honour of Lu Dongbin - one of the Eight Immortals who was said to have been born nearby - and contains murals depicting the Immortals. Yuan Dynasty dramas such as Yueyang Pavilion, The Bamboo Raft and Willow Tree in the south of the city helped to popularise the Eight Immortals. However, they are relatively rare on Yuan dynasty ceramics, and this group of celadon-glazed Longquan octagonal vases is an important surviving testimony to their early appearance in this medium. Similar vases are in international collections. A vase with relief of the eight Daoist immortals, is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (illustrated by Y. Mino & K. Tsiang, Ice and Green Clouds: Traditions of Chinese Celadon, Indianapolis, 1986, pp. 202-3, no. 82). Also in the Percival David Foundation is an octagonal meiping of Longquan celadon (reviewed by R. Scott in Imperial Taste - Chinese Ceramics from the Percival David Foundation, San Francisco, 1989, pp. 48-9, no. 23) - Very minor traces of age

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