- Identification and Creation
-
- Object Number
- 2006.170.178.A-B
- Title
- Covered jar (hu) with pictorial decoration
- Other Titles
- Original Language Title: 西漢 彩繪陶壺
- Classification
- Vessels
- Work Type
- vessel
- Date
- 2nd-1st 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/195610
- Physical Descriptions
-
- Medium
- Gray earthenware with cold-painted pigments
- Dimensions
- H. 45.5 x Diam. 29 cm (17 15/16 x 11 7/16 in.)
- Provenance
- [Kaikodo, New York, 1996] sold; to Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation, Woodside, CA (1996-2006), 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
- 2006.170.178.A-B
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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- Descriptions
-
- Description
- Covered jar with slightly flared mouth, cylindrical neck, broad, rounded shoulders, wide body, sides tapering slightly inward to a flat circular base, and dome-shaped cover; light gray earthenware with decoration cold-painted in unfired off-white, red, dark red, purple and black pigments on a white ground, the container with pictorial designs of two equestrian hunters bearing bows and arrows pursuing a white tiger painted in white, the lid with geometric decor.
Note:
A sample taken from the base of this vessel was thermoluminescence (TL) tested at Oxford Authentication Ltd. in April 2000 and determined to be consistent with the suggested period of manufacture. - Commentary
- Compare to:
(1) Cold-painted earthenware jar of related form but with geometric cloud-scroll decor excavated in 2001 from an early Western Han tomb in Sushantou near Mount Jiuli, Xuzhou, Jiangsu province. See Wenwu [Cultural Relics] 5 (2013): 34, fig. 9.
(2) Cold-painted earthenware jar of related form with geometric designs and a decorative band depicting a phoenix, a tiger, and a dragon excavated in 1992 from a late Western Han tomb in Jinguyuan near Luoyang train station in Luoyang city, Henan province. See Wenwu [Cultural Relics] 7 (1994): 25, fig. 6.5.
(3) Cold-painted earthenware jar of related form with geometric designs and a decorative band depicting an equestrian archer chasing after a bear and a tiger attributed to the Western Han period in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection, New York (accession no. 1992.165.20a,b).
- Publication History
-
Kaikodo Journal, Vol. 02 (Autumn 1996), auct. cat., Kaikodo (Kamakura, Japan and New York, 1996), no. 31, pp. 118-119 and 241-243
- Exhibition History
- Related Media
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3D Model: Covered 'Hu' Jar with Decoration of Two Equestrian Hunters Pursuing a Tiger
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This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu