Slops jar (zhadou), 1450-1521, Ming dynasty. Porcelain with cobalt under colorless glaze. H: 10.8 W: 14.9 cm, Jingdezhen, China. Purchase F1951.12.Freer/Sackler © 2014 Smithsonian Institution

Jars of this shape, known in Chinese as zhadou, are called "slops jars" and they were primarily used to hold table refuse--food scraps and dregs of tea and wine. Another name for the shape that was commonly used especially in early twentieth-century writings about Chinese porcelain is "leys jar"; sometimes the term "spittoon" is also used.

Both the inside and outside of the jar are adorned with naturalistic sprays of fruiting and flowering branches. While reign marks were commonly written on imperial porcelains from the Xuande period (1426-1435) onward, that was not always the case. This object does not have a reign mark and scholars differ in their opinion as to its date. Perhaps it was made during the Chenghua reign (1465--87), but it might date as late as the Zhengde reign (1506-21).