Lot 100
100
A RARE DARK GREEN-GLAZED POTTERY PILGRIM'S FLASK AND COVER

Details
A RARE DARK GREEN-GLAZED POTTERY PILGRIM'S FLASK AND COVER
LIAO DYNASTY

Molded in imitation of a tall leather flask with thick, raised seams tapering from the rounded lower body towards the flattened handle cut with a broad notch in the center and pierced with two holes below three naked figures grimacing as they crouch and clutch at the corners of the upper edge, with a similar figure seated atop the stepped cover of the wide, circular spout, the two broad sides carved with linear, foliate arabesques, all under a dark green glaze continuing partially under a flat foot with concave center, glaze with some degrading (some restoration to rim of spout)
13 7/8in. (35.4cm.) high

Lot Essay

Compare the flask and cover of this type, with only two figures and a bud finial on the cover rather than a human figure, in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, included in the Memorial Exhibition of the Charles B. Hoyt Collection, February 13-March 30, l952, Catalogue, no. 170; and another with a single figure and minus the cover illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 10, Tokyo, 1955, fig. 148. Another similarly glazed flask of this form, with two crouching figures and a cover, but with different decoration on the sides, is in the Chang Foundation, and illustrated in Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing, Taipei, 1990, no. 20