Lot Essay
Ewers of the present form with decorations finely carved in high relief are among the earliest celadon wares produced at the Yaozhou kilns in Huangbao county, Tongchuan city, Shaanxi province. Sherds of ewers with similar form and carved decoration had been recovered from the Five Dynasties stratum at the Yaozhou kiln sites, see Wudai Huangbao yaozhi, Beijing, 1997, pp. 64 and 67, colour pl. 5, pl. 29, and pl. 30, figs. 1 and 2, and another example illustrated in Yaozhou Kiln, Shaanxi Province, 1992, 56th page. Compare also to a nearly identical example in the Meiyintang Collection, illustrated by Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994, vol. 3(II), pp. 470-1, no. 1472.