A SMALL BUFF-YELLOW-GLAZED BROWN-SPLASHED CHICKEN-HEAD EWER

Details

A SMALL BUFF-YELLOW-GLAZED BROWN-SPLASHED CHICKEN-HEAD EWER
EASTERN JIN DYNASTY, 4TH/5TH CENTURY

The well-potted, globular body with two lug handles, the curved handle terminating in a dragon head biting the rim of the dished mouth, an upright spout formed as a chicken head, covered in a finely crackled glaze of yellow-olive tone, with three brown splashes falling in an irregular line to the flat base revealing the granular ware burnt orange in firing
7in. (17.8cm.) high

Exhibited

Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Born of Earth and Fire, Chinese Ceramics from the Scheinman Collection, September 9-November 8, 1992, no. 23

Lot Essay

For a discussion of the different types and the development of 'chicken-headed' ewers, see Mino and Tsang exhibition Catalogue, Ice and Green Clouds, Traditions of Chinese Celadon, Indianapolis Museum of Art, January 28-March 22, 1987, Catalogue, p. 88, where a similar ewer, no. 29, also dated to the Eastern Jin is illustrated on p. 89. The authors mention that examples with brown spots on the glaze, such as the present lot, have been found in burials dated 368 and 395 AD