Beschreibung:

A splendid Chinese Longquan celadon-glazed guan-type censer Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) The cylindrical vessel potted with a slightly tapering rim and raised on a short foot, the sides applied with twin stylised dragon handles, covered overall in a pale green-grey glaze suffused with a network of fine crackles. H. 6.5 cm Provenance: - Kunsthandel Joseph M. Morpurgo, Amsterdam (1999) - Collection Drs. Koos de Jong, Amsterdam Compare: - [exhib.cat.] Guan Ware, National Palace Museum, Taipei 1989, no. 36, p. 78 - Orientations, November 1993, pp. 72-75 - [exhib.cat.] Possessing the Past. Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei (Wen C. Fong and J.C.Y. Watt), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1996, p. 245, ill. 124 Note: Regina Krahl notes the following with regard to this type of stoneware: 'The extremely fine glaze, attractive crackle and thin potting link this [type] closely with the official (guan) ware of the Southern Song dynasty, made in the capital Hangzhou. Its somewhat uneven potting, however, and the fact that at the foot-ring its body was coloured with an iron-rich wash to simulate the darker body of guan ware, suggests that the piece was not produced for the court. It may have been made at Hangzhou, where a great variety of guan and guan-type wares was produced, or at one of the Longquan kilns where guan ware was extensively and successfully copied'.