Beak-Spouted Pitcher
9th-8th century BCE
Description
The vessel has a shallow foot with flat base. A slight edge marks the transition of shoulder to neck, which opens in a flaring mouth. A flat strap handle connects lip and shoulder. Opposite the handle is a spout terminating in a long, trough-shaped and tapering beak (the very tip appears to be missing). It is linked to the vessel’s lip by a small bridge of clay. The bird-like appearance of the vessel is reinforced by a crop on the “neck” of the spout, below the “beak.” Two raised points towards the rear of the vessel, one on each side of the handle, were perhaps inspired by bird anatomy or by the bosses covering rivets on metal vessels of similar shape. The body of the vessel is fired buff to light reddish brown. Its surface is polished and painted with dark reddish-brown decoration. The most elaborate patterns occur at the transition to the spout, where a row of elongated triangles is reminiscent of a bird’s breast feathers. Other motifs include checkerboard and crosshatching. A large diamond filled with checkerboard decorates each side of the vessel, elongated triangles run along the beak-shaped spout, and wavy bands encircle the vessel’s mouth. The handle bears zigzag decoration with interspersed dots, the handle base is framed by volutes, and there is a diamond filled with dotted crosshatching below. On the vessel's interior, the lip is lined with dots, which also appear on the exterior at the transition from shoulder to neck and above the foot. The unpolished underside of the foot shows a sloppily painted cross with a dot in each quadrant, as well as smudged paint. The vessel’s mouth and spout are reassembled from a number of fragments; some 40% of the lip are restored. The painted decoration is abraded where the vessel’s circumference is the largest.
Dimensions
18.5 x 33 x 18 cm (7 5/16 x 13 x 7 1/16 in.)
Provenance
Private collection.
Related Artworks
View MoreTerracotta
5th century BCEGreekGrayish white jadeite with emerald green markings
18th-19th centuryChineseSatsuma ware; white earthenware with decoration in overglaze polychrome enamels and with impressed mark on the base reading 'Taizan'
19th centuryJapaneseFritware, painted in turquoise, cobalt blue and black on white ground under a transparent glaze
14th centuryPersianWhite ware: glazed porcelain with incised mark reading "Qianlong nian zhi" in seal-script characters on the base
18th centuryChineseCast bronze
ChineseChangsha ware: light gray stoneware with pale celadon glaze over white slip and underglaze decoration painted in iron-brown and copper-green pigments, the rim with touches of iron-brown. From the kilns at Tongguan, Changsha, Hunan province.
9th centuryChineseGrayish brown agate with brown mottles
19th centuryChineseLight gray stoneware with carved decoration under a celadon glaze
20th centuryKoreanTerracotta
2nd-3rd century CERomanMino ware, probably Seto type: light gray stoneware with bluish-black glaze, the
15th-17th centuryJapaneseBlue-and-white ware: porcelain with molded decoration and underglaze cobalt blue
14th centuryChinese