Drum shaped jar with peonies. Stoneware, porcelain-type, with applied decoration and celadon glaze. Longquan ware 龍泉窯. Longquan region, Zhejiang province 浙江省，龍泉地區. Yuan, about AD 1300–1368. PDF 225. Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art. PDF A40. British Museum © Trustees of the British Museum

Height: 157 mm. Diameter: 209 mm. Longquan porcelain jar of drum-shape. The jar has greyish-green glaze with some crackle. There is a peony scroll in relief around the exterior with two moulded masks and ring handles, between two bands of flower-shaped bosses.

The peonies around the outside of the jar are applied to the leather-hard body. Their stems are added in slip. The florets suggest nails for tightening the skin on a real drum. Originally this jar would have had a cover. 

Acquisition notes: R. L. Hobson, 1934 records: 'From the De Forest Collection, New York. Formerly exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. See the "Catalogue of the Exhibition of Early Chinese Pottery and Sculpture", Metropolitan Museum, 1916, p.56, No. 260.'

Bibliographic reference: Medley, Margaret, Volume 7: Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, 7 of 12, Tokyo, Kodansha ltd, 1975

Medley, Margaret, Illustrated Catalogue of Celadon Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, University of London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1977 

Pierson, Stacey, Illustrated Catalogue of Celadon Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, University of London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1997 

Hobson, Robert L, A Catalogue of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain in the Collection of Sir Percival David Bt., F.S.A., London, The Stourton Press, 1934