The simple archaic form of the present lot is typical of the refined aesthetics in vogue at the height of the Song dynasty⛎, which continued well into the subsequent periods. For a Han dynasty bronze prototype of this shape, but without handles, see an example in the Freer Gallery of Art Collection, no. F1966.14.

A Longquan handled vase of this form, but of much smaller proportions (16.8 cm), attributed to the 12th-13th century, from the collections of Wayland Wells Williams, B.A. 1910, is in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, no. 1949.278, and exhibited in The Scholar as Collector: Chinese Art at Yale, Yale University Art Gallery and China Institute in America, New York, 2004, no. 26, fig. 8. Another smaller example (27 cm), with longer handles and a straight foot, attributed to the 14th century, is preserved in the Hagi Uragami Museum and exhibited in Longquan ware: Chinese Celadon Beloved of the Japanese, Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Nagoya, 2012, cat. no. 68. A further pair of small Yuan vases (15.5 cm) was exhibited in Art of China and Japan, Huntsville Museum of Art, Alabama, 1977, cat. no. 64 and again in Heaven and Earth Seen Within, New Orlea🌸ns Museum of Art, Louisiana, 2000,🔯 cat. no. 62, and sold at Christie's New York, 30th March 2005, lot 324.