2006.170.217: Ovoid jar

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2006.170.217

Title

Ovoid jar

Other Titles

Original Language Title: 西晋 越窯青瓷罐

Classification

Vessels

Work Type

vessel

Date

3rd-early 4th century

Places

Creation Place: East Asia, China, Zhejiang Province, Shaoxing

Period

Jin dynasty, Western Jin period, 266-317

Culture

Chinese

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/189235

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Yue ware: stoneware with celadon glaze

Technique

Celadon

Dimensions

H. 34 x Diam. 41.3 cm (13 3/8 x 16 1/4 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

[Christian Boehm, London, November 1999] sold; to Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation, Woodside, CA (1999-2006), partial gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2006.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Partial gift of the Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation and partial purchase through the Alpheus Hyatt Purchasing Fund

Accession Year

2006

Object Number

2006.170.217

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

Large jar with broad, rounded shoulders; side walls tapering inward dramatically to a proportionally small, slightly concave base; very short upright neck with slightly rolled rim; incised horizontal lines encircle the vessel between the neck and shoulders; four small, molded, simulated pushou-mask ring-handles evenly spaced around the vessel, just below the incised lines; light gray stoneware with crazed olive-green glaze over incised and molded applique decoration; fully glazed on the exterior and interior; markings on the base indicate the vessel was raised in the kiln when fired. From the Yue kilns in the Shaoxing area of northeastern Zhejiang province.

Commentary

Compare to:
(1) Celadon jar of similar form but of smaller size and with lug handles excavated in 1987 from a Western Jin site in Nanchi, Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, now in the Shaoxing Office for the Preservation and Management of Cultural Relics. See Zhongguo taoci quanji [The Complete Works of Chinese Ceramics], vol. 4: Sanguo, liang Jin, nanbei chao [Three-Kingdoms, Western and Eastern Jin, Northern and Southern dynasties] (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin meishu chubanshe, 2000), no. 103, pp. 115 and 265.
(2) Celadon jar of similar form but of smaller size and with lug handles attributed to the Western Jin period in the East Zhejiang Yue Ware Museum collection. See Beijing daxue Zhongguo kaogu yanjiu zhongxin [Chinese Archaeology Research Center, Peking University], Die cui : Zhedong yueyao qingci bowuguan zang qingci jingpin [Vibrant Greens: Celadon Glazes over Two Millennia: Masterpieces from the East Zhejiang Museum of Yue Celadon ware] (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 2013), no. 35, pp. 220-223.
(3) Celadon jar of similar form without lug handles but of smaller size attributed to the Western Jin period in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection (collection number 1984.5). Published as Three-Kingdoms period in Yutaka Mino and Katherine Tsiang, Ice and Green Clouds (Indianapolis: Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1987), cat. 23, pp. 72-73.

Subjects and Contexts

• Sedgwick Collection

Verification Level