A MOLDED LONGQUAN CELADON 'FU SHOU' VASE

Description:

China, Yuan - early Ming dynasty, 14th c.
H. 20 cm
The pearshaped vase is molded on either side with a ruyi-shaped panel, one containing the character fu (fortune), the other character shou (long life), below the neck flanked by elephant-head handles suspending fixed rings and the lotus blossom-form mouth.
Old North German private collection, assembled before 2007
The present vase is inscribed with the character fu to one side and shou to the other, conveying wishes of good fortune and longevity respectively. See a closely related vase, in the British Museum, London, bequeathed by Henry B. Harris and illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pl. 16:18; another, with openwork sides, is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 4 (I), London, 2006, pl. 1605. See a vase with a plain foliate rim, included in Chinese Celadons and Other Related Wares in Southeast Asia, Southeast Asian Ceramic Society, Singapore, 1979, cat. no. 248 - Slightly chipped, old cracks