3. Celadon-glazed stoneware bottle

Northern Song dynasty, 11^th or early 12^th century
Yaozhou kilns, Shaanxi province
Height: 22.2cm
 
During the Northern Song period, most of the output of the Yaozhou kilns consisted of bowls and dishes while upright forms were particularly rare. This bottle is one of only a few of such vessels known and similar examples are in the Musée Guimet, Paris and in the Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology in China. This vessel has an illustrious provenance – it was first recorded in a Japanese publication in 1943, in the collection of Takatori Tatsunosuke of Yokohama. Subsequently, it has been included in at least seven exhibitions, the most recent being Collectors, Curators, Connoisseurs: A Century of the Oriental Ceramic Society, 1921 – 2021 in 2021.