AN OCHRE-GLAZED POTTERY PHOENIX-HEAD EWER

Details

AN OCHRE-GLAZED POTTERY PHOENIX-HEAD EWER
LIAO DYNASTY

Of elongated form with rounded upper body, the high shoulder encircled by an incised line and the tall neck by a series of grooves below a phoenix head with curved beak and crest and incised lashes, surmounted by a deep, cup-shaped mouth with everted, petal-lobed rim covered on the exterior with a finely crackled ochre glaze continuing just over the rim into the interior, the glaze on the body of a more mottled olive-green tone and falling short of the countersunk foot to expose the fine buff ware, small rim chips--19 3/8in. (49.2cm.) high

Lot Essay

Compare the less attentuated ewer of this type covered with an amber glaze in the Honolulu Academy of Arts, illustrated by Medley, T'ang Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1981, pl. 131 and another in the Liaoning Museum included in the exhibition, Dai Sansai, Tokyo, 1989, Catalogue, pl. 67