Model of a Multi-Storied Tower, Chinese, 1st century. Earthenware with unfired pigments, 132.08 × 85.09 × 68.58 cm. Nelson Atkins Museum, Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust, 33-521.

Four story house, with a narrow balcony with figures above the first level, a landscape painting with birds and trees on the sides of the house. Two towers flank the balcony and there is a square tower on top.

During the Han dynasty, the aristocracy lived on great estates centered on palatial mansions incorporating multi-story wooden towers. The towers were both defensive-many of the models include archers- and also designed to impress as prestigious architecture, with tiled roofs and overhanging eaves supported by elaborate brackets often mentioned in poems of the period. Beautifully painted designs on the doors and sides of this house suggest that perhaps real houses of this time were also similarly decorated. A figure seated on this tower probably represents the owner.