Ewer, Yaozhou ware, Song dynasty, 10th-11th century. Stoneware with carved décor under celadon glaze, 6 1/2 x 6 1/4 x 6in. (16.5 x 15.9 x 15.2cm). Gift of Ruth and Bruce Dayton 98.126 © 2015 All Rights Reserved. Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Recent excavations confirm that this type of deeply carved stoneware with celadon glaze was made at the Yaozhou kilns in Shanxi province. Freely and boldly carved around the sides with a large peony flower in full bloom, the globular vessel has been covered with a thin, pale green celadon, characteristic of this rare group of tenth and early eleventh century ceramics. The ewer would have originally had a lid that capped its tall, cylindrical neck. Hard, grayish-bodied stonewares, commonly called northern celadon, are usually decorated with incised, moulded or carved designs under a fairly homogenous family of translucent green-olive green glazes. Standing near the beginning of the Northern Song continuum (960-1127), this ewer displays the thin pale-green glaze of that era.