The high-shouldered tapering body painted in matte russet brown with two long-tailed birds with spread wings swooping down from the shoulder in contrast to the lustrous blackish glaze which also covers the interior where it thins to a brownish color, the neatly cut, wide mouth applied with a rope-twist loop handle, the interior of the foot similarly glazed and the bottom of the foot unglazed to show the fine pale buff stoneware body, box.

Note: Only one other example of this rare form appears to have been previously published, a black-glazed jar loosely painted in russet-brown illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, Black Porcelain from the Mr. and Mrs. Yeung Wing Tak Collection, Guangzhou, 1997, no. 49. 

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 22 March 2007