This blue & white "Swatow" porcelain dish, or shallow bowl, was made during the Wanli Reign (1573 - 1620) of the Ming Dynasty. It is coated in a thick glaze and decorated in underglaze cobalt blue. The decoration features a pheasant in a garden. The inner wall is undecorated and around the flat rim there are six roundels containing floral patterns surrounded by a repeating diaper pattern. The underside is sparsely decorated with jus...
This blue & white "Swatow" porcelain dish was made during the Wanli Reign (1573 - 1620) of the Ming Dynasty. It is coated in a thick crackled glaze and decorated in underglaze cobalt blue of very good colour. The decoration is the "double phoenix" pattern, two phoenixes standing facing each other, presumably male and female, surrounded by foliage and peony blossoms. Swatow, or Zhangzhou ceramics, were often exporte...
This sturdy ridge tile in the form of a seated lion-dog dates to the latter part of the Ming Dynasty (c. 1600 - 1644). It is coated in a thick and finely-crackled attractive turquoise glaze. The curved underneath of the tile remains unglazed and has the impressions of a finely-woven cloth on which it must have been placed during manufacture.
Height 22 cm. There is a chip to one ear and kiln scars on both sides of the animal's mout...
This fine and impressive pottery jar (hu) was made during the Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD 220). It is made from a fairly high-fired reddish pottery and coated in a particularly attractive glossy thick streaky green and finely-crackled glaze, the colour of which varies according to its thickness. Interestingly, the drips of glaze to the mouth rim and the pooling of glaze to the flat base show that this jar was fired upsid...
This large and impressive pottery jar was made over 4,000 years ago during the Machang Phase (c. 2300 - 2000 BC) of the Majiayao culture, also known as the Gansu-Yangshao culture, from present day Gansu or Qinghai province. It is quite "heavily-potted" with a smooth surface and is fairly highly-fired. The surface colour of the pottery varies in places, a result of uneven conditions during firing. It has a short neck with flared m...
This fine, impressive and very rare pair of pottery vases was made during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD 8) or possibly a little earlier. They are of a particularly pleasing and elegant form, the wide bodies rising up from the flat bases, then constricting into long slender necks and finally opening up into fairly wide mouths. They are quite "heavily-potted" and made from a dense fine-grained dark grey pottery, the surface o...
This blue and white porcelain bowl with flared rim was made during the late 15th - early 16th century (Hongzhi reign 1488 – 1505). The outer wall is decorated in underglaze blue with a honeycomb pattern. The central decoration is loosely based on a vajra (Buddhist sceptre) with various other decorations around the inner wall. It is coated in a finely-crackled glaze.
Diameter 14.5 cm. Condition is very good: there is a hairlin...
This very rare pottery model of a bird, either a duck or a goose, was made during the Warring States period (475 - 221 BC). It is "heavily-potted" and made from quite a high-fired grey pottery. The duck stands with its neck and wings stretched, as if in the act of preparing to fly. Note the detail, especially to the wings, with the tiger heads. The style and decoration suggest this model was based on a bronze example. On the...
This very rare and fascinating pottery jar was made around the 13th - 14th century during the Song Dynasty (AD 960 - 1279) or possibly the Yuan Dynasty (AD 1279 - 1368) and has been excavated from a Buddhist site in Yunnan province, at the time a particularly isolated part of China. It is made from a relatively highly-fired grey pottery the surface colour varying in places from pale to dark grey although much of t...