AN UNUSUAL OLIVE-GREEN-GLAZED POTTERY TRIPOD VESSEL, JIANHU

Details

AN UNUSUAL OLIVE-GREEN-GLAZED POTTERY TRIPOD VESSEL, JIANHU
HAN DYNASTY

The compressed lower body raised on three tall, knife-cut supports and encircled by a narrow grooved band below a flanged rim incised with a dogtooth band interrupted by a hollow handle projecting from one side, with a band of incised scallops and striations above at the base of the spreading reel-shaped neck, the stepped, flared cover also with incised decoration and applied with three bosses and a loop and stationary ring handle, covered with a thin glaze of dark olive color (rim chips)
11¾in. (29.8cm.) high, box

Lot Essay

Compare a very similar glazed pottery jianhu, excavated from a brick tomb at Dongwuyuan, Guangzhou, dated to the first year of jianchu or 76 A.D., published by Katherine R. Tsiang, "Glazed Stonewares of the Han Dynasty", Artibus Asiae, Ascona, Switzerland, 1979, pp. 157-184, fig. 31e, where the author notes that this type of ware was made in southern China during the Han Dynasty and 'characteristically are direct imitations of the shapes of contemporary bronzes'. The piece is also published in Wenwu, 1959:11, p. 15, fig. 4. Compare, also, three other examples included in the exhibition, Ice and Green Clouds, Indianapolis Museum of Art, January 28-March 22, 1987, illustrated by Mino and Tsiang in the Catalogue, pp. 62 and 63, where the authors note that this type of vessel is 'closely modeled on a bronze vessel used for heating and pouring liquids'. Another example is illustrated by Mitsuru Uragami in Ancient Chinese Ceramics from the Neolithic Period to the Western Han, Tokyo, 1991, p. 90