PAIR OF GLAZED STONWARE ARROW VASES, Longquan Touhu
- Feb 5, 2018
- 1 min read
YUAN DYNASTY (13th-14th Century)
Height: 15.5 cm (6 1/2 inches)
Resting on wide, straight footrims, each vase rises to rounded sides, tapering to a long, slender neck and culminating in a slightly flared mouthrim. On either side of the necks, are mounted two small, cylindrical handles. The pear-shaped bodies are glazed in a smooth, silky-textured, sea-green glaze, running down the the foot leaving the stoneware exposed, where it is burnt reddish-brown from firing.
Arrow cases (touhu) were traditionally used in Chinese drinking games of the elite. Arrows would have been thrown into these vases, which would have originally been made in bronze, and for every missed attempt, the player would suffer a penalty drink.
This particular pair was likely intended to hold small flowers.
Provenance: Robert Barron Collection
Warren E. Cox, New York 1966.
Yamanaka & Co., New York, 1943, no. 748
Exhibited: Hunstville Museum of Art, Art of China and Japan, 1977, no. 64
New Orleans Museum of Art, Heaven and Earth Seen Within, 2000, no. 62
A similar vase was part of the exhibition, The Scholar as Collector: Art at Yale, Yale University Art Gallery and China Institute of America, New York, 2004, p. 18, fig. 8.
Another pair of longquan arrow vases was excavated from the tomb of the Yuan calligrapher, Xian Yushu (1251-1302) and illustrated in Zhang Yulan's "Hangzhoushi faxian Yuandai Xian Yushu mu," Wenwu, 1990, figs. 11-12.
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