Ewers of this type are derived from Sassanian silver examples and are known in various glaze combinations. Ewers with the same color scheme as the present example are published, including one unearthed from Sanqiao, Xi'an, 1959, and included in the exhibition, Treasures from Chang'an: Capital of the Silk Road, Hong Kong, October 15,1993-January 2, 1994, no. 30; and another now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and illustrated by Suzanne Valenstein, The Herzman Collection of Chinese Ceramics, Hong Kong, 1992, no. 6, and previously in the Heller Collection included in the exhibition, Foreigners in Ancient Chinese Art, The China House Gallery, New York, March 27-April 25, 1969, Catalogue, no. 59, where Ezekiel Schloss also illustrated a Post-Sassanian silver ewer of similar shape, as well as a dish decorated with an archer on horseback

Other ewers of this design with the addition of green glaze to the combination of blue, amber and cream are in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 8, Tokyo, 1982, col. pl. 23; one included in the exhibition, Spirit and Ritual: The Morse Collection of Ancient Chinese Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1982, Catalogue, no. 53; one from the collection of Mrs. Alfred Clark, included in the exhibition, The Arts of the T'ang Dynasty, Los Angeles County Museum, January 8-February 17, 1957, Catalogue, no. 188; and another was sold in these rooms, June 3, 1981, lot 65

A ewer glazed in brown and green was included in the exhibition, Treasures from the Shanghai Museum, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, May 4-September 30, l983, Catalogue, no. 70, where d'Argencé notes that molds for this type of ewer have been discovered at the Huangye kiln site of Gong county, Henan province

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 766h89 is consistent with the dating of this lot