WESTERN JIN DYNASTY, 3RD-4TH CENTURY

Details

A YUE ANIMAL-FORM VESSEL
WESTERN JIN DYNASTY, 3RD-4TH CENTURY
The vessel is hollow-molded as a mythical beast, bixie, crouching on four small clawed feet, with combed markings delineating the beard, mane and back and the applied tail molded with curls. A tubular aperture rises from the animal's back, and the beast is covered overall with a thin pale olive glaze, pooling to green in the recesses.
7 1/8 in. (18 cm.) long, cloth box

Provenance

Acquired in Hong Kong prior to 1989.

Lot Essay

This type of stoneware beast-form vessel appears to have been made at the Yue kilns in varying sizes; this figure being one of the larger sizes. Similarly modeled examples were included in the Special Exhibition of Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo National Museum, 1994, nos. 58 and 59. The exact use of these vessels is still being debated.

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