Glazed stoneware jar

From China
Han dynasty, 1st century BC-1st century AD

High-fired jar with three glazed bands

This stoneware jar may have been produced in Zhejiang province, where sherds of similar ware have been excavated at sites dating to the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). The high-fired ceramics of the Han dynasty closely imitate comtemporay bronze vessels. Wares from the south, where bronze was less commonly used and ceramic technology was more advanced, look like bronzes from central China.

This example has incised decoration around the neck and three bands of glaze. The three raised lines around the body prevent the glaze from running. The green, felspathic glaze used here was developed in the Han dynasty. On wares from the greenware kilns of southern and eastern China, the glaze seldom covers more than half the vessel, and always the top half.

S.J. Vainker, Chinese pottery and porcelain, (London, The British Museum Press, 1991)