A SANCAI-GLAZED POTTERY DRAGON-HEAD AMPHORA

TANG DYNASTY

Details
A SANCAI-GLAZED POTTERY DRAGON-HEAD AMPHORA
tang dynasty
The high-shouldered oviform body with a tall slender neck, applied with a pair of double-strap handles attached to the shoulder and rising to dragon-heads with flaming crest and swept-back ears, their open jaws biting the mouthrim, the upper half covered with a green, cream and amber streaked glaze and the lower exposing the unglazed buff body, minor chips and some glaze flaking
14¼in. (36cm.) high

Lot Essay

This amphora is somewhat larger than many recorded examples with similar sancai glazes. Smaller amphorae, approximately 11¼in., 29cm. high, can be found in the Musée Guimet, Paris, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics - The World's Great Collections, vol.7, colour plate 7; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, gift of Mrs. Stanley Herzman, illustrated by S. G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics: Revised and Enlarged Edition, 1989, no.58, and by Valenstein, The Herzman Collection of Chinese Ceramics, no.8, p.18; another in the Metropolitan Museum, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics - The World's Great Collections, vol.11, no.18; and the Eumorfopoulos example, exhibited in Early Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, The Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1911, Catalogue, pl.VIII, no.A66.

More from Chinese

View All
View All