Note: The present ewer is of a distinctive type of northern white ware; its wide funnel-like mouth is an efficient means of pouring liquid from a larger container to this smaller one.  A related ewer, without the entwined vines handle, was uncovered at the site of Liao dynasty tomb in Yanghuan county, now in the Hebei Institute of Cultural Relics and illustrated in the Complete Collection of Ceramic Art Unearthed in China: Hebei, vol. 3, Beijing, 2008, cat. no. 160. Another similar ewer with a horizontally ridged neck excavated at Xingzhuang, Yanshan County, dated Five Dynasties, is illustrated ibid., cat. no. 75. A ewer of similar form but with floral carving, also without the handle was sold in our London rooms 11th July 1978, lot 108, and another in the Shanghai museum, was included in the exhibition Chogoku rekidai toji ten [Chinese Ceramics Through the Ages], Seibu Art Museum, Tokyo, 1984, cat. no. 40. Compare also a white-glazed double gourd ewer dated to the Northern Song–Liao Dynasty sold in our London rooms, 12th November 2003, from the Muwen Tang collection.