Fine Chinese Han Dynasty Glazed Ding Tripod with Twin Fish Pattern

This fine example of a ding tripod was made during the middle of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD 8) from a fairly high-fired pale reddish-brown pottery. The green colour of the glaze varies according to its thickness, the thicker the glaze the deeper the colour. In places the glaze has acquired a silvery and golden iridescence, a result of exposure to moisture during its very long burial. The body is almost "semi-spherical" in shape and stands on three curved legs with a pair of square-cup curving handles opposing each other at the shoulder. Around the top of the body is band of impressed triangular decoration. However, the main decoration is to the cover: triangular patterns around the edge, then a cloud pattern and finally the two crossed fish. This decoration is moulded - indeed, the underside of the cover has marks of 2,000 year old fingerprints where the soft clay was pressed into the mould.

Diameter at handles 26 cm, height 20 cm. This is an exceptional example in fine condition. Although there is no sign of any restoration or repair, there are chips to the vulnerable edge of the cover and there is also a hairline crack to the cover (see magnified images).

For reference: an almost identical example with the same decoration is shown in the fine reference work, the Southeast Asian Ceramic Society book "Spirit of Han".

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