Lot 403. A Yueyao chicken head ewer, Western Jin dynasty (265-316). H. 21,5 cm. Estimate 2.000/3.000 €. Lot sold 1.000 €. Courtesy Nagel

of globular form with a short cylindrical neck rising to a cupped mouth, set with a chicken head spout with an open beak opposite a plain round handle rising from the shoulder to the mouthrim, and set with two small loops, the surface of the vessel punched with small florettes, all beneath a pale olive-green glaze with few brown splashes. Minor restorations to mouth rim and handle.

Provenance: Property from a Bavarian private collection, bought 1997 from Marc Richards.

Note: Compare a Western Jin jar without handle and an Eastern Jin chicken-head ewer, excavated at Nanjing in Jiangsu and at Yuyao in Zhejiang province, respectively, both included in the exhibition The Genius of China, Royal Academy, London, 1973-74, cat.nos.236 and 238.