The unusual shape of this vessel with its ample sloping mouth rim took its form from metalwork, cf. two Tang dynasty silver zhadou, one cast with lobed sides excavated at Xi'an, illustrated in Tangdai Jinyin Qi, no. 255; and the other with a slightly concave mouth rim, found in a tomb in Linan Xian Shiu Qiushi, Zhejiang province, ibid., no. 278.

For an identical example from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, with a brush-written inscription dated to A.D. 841, is included in the Handbook, The Asia Society, 1981, p. 61.

(US$11,000-13,000)