LIAO DYNASTY (AD 907-1125)

Flasks of this unusual type were likely inspired by Liao leather or metal examples. Another pottery flask of this form, decorated with a dragon design is illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art, Chinese Ceramics I, Neolithic to Liao, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 154. See, also, the related ewer of spherical form from the Museum of Chifeng City illustrated in Gilded Splendor, Treasures of China's Liao Empire, New York, 2006, p. 312, no. 91.