Lot 1105. A painted grey pottery cocoon jar, Western Han dynasty, late 3rd-2nd century BC, 13½ in. (34.3 cm.) long. Estimate USD 3,000 - USD 4,000. Price realised USD 2,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2011 

The oblong body surmounted by a circular neck rising to an everted rim, painted in shades of pink, white and brick red with vertical bands of decoration, with bands of scrolls in pink and white within dark brick-red borders, with a red band encircling the shallow pedestal foot.

Provenance: In the Gordon Collection, United States, by 1997. 

Note: A jar of this type excavated in Xinxiangxian, Henan province, is illustrated in Historical Relics Unearthed in New China, Beijing, 1972, pl. 87. Compare a similar jar with similar decoration illustrated by F. Klapthor, Chinese Ceramics, The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1993, p. 4; and another included in the exhibition, Spirit of Han, Ceramics for the After-Life, Southeast Asian Ceramics Society, Singapore, 1991, no. 17. See, also, the similar jar sold in these rooms from the Hardy Collection, 21 September 1995, lot 23 and again 18 September 2003, lot 196.    

Christie's. Magnificent Qing Monochrome Porcelains and Earlier Works of Art from the Gordon Collection, 24 March 2011, New York