A large splash-glazed stoneware jar, Tang dynasty (AD 618-907)

Lot 1271. A large splash-glazed stoneware jar, Tang dynasty (AD 618-907); 15 in. (38.2 cm.) high. Estimate USD 15,000 - USD 20,000. Price realised USD 50,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2013 

The tapering ovoid jar has four double-strap lug handles applied to the shoulder below the wide mouth with unglazed rim, and is covered inside and out with a glaze of dark olive-brown color boldly decorated with large irregular splashes of beige tone shading to pale blue at the edges, as well as three vertical drips of milky blue color that fall on the lower body to the top of the knife-cut foot and flat base, where the granular ware is exposed.

Provenance: Honeychurch Antiques, Seattle, 1987.

Note: A closely related Tang dynasty splash-glazed jar of comparable size, formerly in the Jaehne Collection, and now in The Newark Museum, is illustrated by R. Mowry, Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 1996, p. 95, no. 8, where it is attributed to the Duandian kiln, Lushan county, Henan province. Another very similar jar was included in the exhibition, Early Chinese Ceramics: An American Private Collection, 28 March - 16 April 2005, no. 13. See, also, the example illustrated by Liu Liang-yu, Early Wares: Prehistoric to Tenth Century, A Survey of Chinese Ceramics, 1, Taipei, 1991, no. 95; and another illustrated in Selected Masterpieces of Oriental Ceramics, Matsuoka Museum of Art, Japan, 1984, no. 14. Another similar example is illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, no. 389. See also, the jar sold at Christies' London, 12 June 1989, lot 136.