2006.170.179: Cocoon shaped jar

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2006.170.179

Title

Cocoon shaped jar

Other Titles

Original Language Title: 西漢 灰陶繭形壺

Classification

Vessels

Work Type

vessel

Date

2nd century BCE

Places

Creation Place: East Asia, China

Period

Han dynasty, Western Han period, 206 BCE-9 CE

Culture

Chinese

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/190850

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Earthenware with incised decoration

Dimensions

H. 39.5 x W. 44.5 x D. 30.7 cm (15 9/16 x 17 1/2 x 12 1/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

[Galerie Gisèle Croës - Arts d'Extreme-Orient, Brussels, Belgium, April 1999] sold; to Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation, Woodside, CA (1997-2006), 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

2006.170.179

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

Large oblong horizontal vessel with body resembling the shape of a silkworm cocoon; short cylindrical neck and everted mouth rim with beveled edge at top center; elliptical body resting on circular, slightly splayed, circular pedestal foot; medium gray earthenware with incised bowstring lines encircling the body vertically.

Commentary

Compare to:
(1) Earthenware cocoon-shaped jar with closely related bowstring-line decor excavated in 2003 from an early Western Han tomb near Zaoyuan village, Weiyang district, Xi’an, Shaanxi province. See Wenwu [Cultural Relics] 12 (2003): 35, fig. 18.
(2) Very similar cocoon-shaped jar excavated in 1991 from an early Western Han dynasty tomb near Mount Houlou in Tongshan county, Xuzhou, Jiangsu province. See Wenwu [Cultural Relics] 4 (1993): 35, fig. 11.
(3) Similar but smaller gray earthenware cocoon-shaped jar excavated from a Western Han site in Gaomingcun, Dali county, Shaanxi province, now in the Shaanxi History Museum. See Zhongguo taoci quanji [The Complete Works of Chinese Ceramics], vol. 3: Qin, Han [Qin and Han dynasties] (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin meishu chubanshe, 2000), no. 39, pp. 66 and 231.

Subjects and Contexts

• Sedgwick Collection

Verification Level