Lot 804. A pair of brown and green-glazed 'owl' jars and covers, and a brown-glazed pottery figure of an owl, Han dynasty (206 BC -220 AD); 18.5 and 19.8 cm. Lot sold: 56,700 HKD (Estimate: 30,000-50,000 HKD). © Sotheby's.

The dating of the pair of 'owl' jars is consistent with the result of a thermoluminescence test, Oxford Authentication Ltd, sample no. C103a87.

Literature: 'Owl' jars: Regina Krahl, Collection Julius Eberhardt: Early Chinese Art, vol. 2, Hong Kong, 2004, p. 64f.

Note: See a similar pair of 'owl' jars excavated in Jiyuan county, Henan province, and now in the Henan Provincial Museum, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue The Treasures from the Han, Singapore, 1990, p. 68 top. 

Sotheby's. Chinese Art Online: A Private Asian Collection, Hong Kong, 3 December 2021