**Originally Listed At $800**

East Asia, China, Ming Dynasty, ca. 1368 to 1644 CE. A hand-built pottery wine jar of a sizable form from the Cizhou Ware tradition with a concave circular base, a tall, inverted piriform body, a sloped shoulder that tapers to a squat, cylindrical neck, and a thick rim adorned with a solid layer of brown pigment. The cream-slipped ground provides for an elegant ground atop which the brown pigment forms zigzagging registers, minimalist foliate motifs, and flowing Chinese characters. A wonderful wine jar replete with expert construction and attractive artistry! Size: 16.2" W x 25.4" H (41.1 cm x 64.5 cm)

Despite its popularity during the Ming Dynasty, Cizhou Ware is most prominently associated with the northern Song to Yuan period of the 11th to 14th century CE. Cizhou Ware is characterized by iron-pigmented brown slip atop cream-white slip and then covered with a clear glaze to seal in the detailing. Cizhou ceramics were initially intended to be used and enjoyed by those in the middle class for storing various materials like foodstuffs or wine, and many domestic items were made in this particular style. However, the technique of sealing the painted decorations would continue to be used for later Chinese ceramics like this example.

For a stylistically similar example with more elaborate decorations, please see The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 1991.253.23.

Provenance: private Los Angeles, California, USA collection, 1980s-2000s

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#154595

Chipping to glaze in several areas, with nicks and abrasions to base, body, and rim, fading to original pigment, and light encrustations, otherwise intact and very good. Nice earthen deposits and remains of original pigment throughout.