Sancai-glazed white earthenware jar of slightly compressed globular shape, supported on a splayed foot-ring and rising to a waisted neck with an everted galleried mouth. The exterior is splashed with green and amber glazes against a cream ground to form a continuous chevron pattern falling in streaks and stopping irregularly above the foot to reveal the buff-coloured body. The interior and exterior of the mouth are also splashed with amber and green glazes against cream to form an attractive dappled pattern.
Height: 13.5cm
Diameter: 12.0cm
Provenance:
Private collection, Tokyo.
Kochukyo Co. Limited, Tokyo.
Similar examples:
Sekai toji zenshu, (Ceramic Art of the World), Sui and T’ang Dynasties, volume 11, Tokyo, 1976, page 141, number 127 for a similar sancai-glazed example and page 30, number 17 for a white-glazed example dated Sui-Tang dynasties, 7th century.
This type of jar with a compressed globular body and a short neck supporting a wide dished mouth appears during the earlier Sui dynasty (581 - 618), often covered with a transparent glaze over a white body. The shape is also seen in metalwork, perhaps the original inspiration for the shape.1 The form continued in the Tang dynasty, sometimes with a more globular body, and often vibrantly decorated with sancai glazes as seen on the present example. The loose chevron design and white-spotted resist pattern relate to both textile patterns and techniques of the period.
1 Cao Yin ed., Tang, Treasures from the Silk Road Capital, Sydney, 2016, catalogue number 46 for a silver example excavated from a Tang site and now in the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology.