Pottery jar with impressed design

A grey pottery jar, the hard-fired, thinly potted body of globular form. The jar has a somewhat flattened base and a short neck with everted rim. A separately potted, broad flat handle is attached to one side. The main body of the jug has a cord-impressed design, which is applied evenly across the lower half. The neck is plain, except for a number of lightly incised lines. The handle has a design of four vertical ribs. Extensive traces of yellow earth adhere to the grey pottery.

•  This small jar, potted and decorated with evident care, was nevertheless most probably made as a utilitarian vessel. Vessels of this type are thought to have been produced in either Zhejiang or Jiangsu province; Krahl attributes a very similarly potted and decorated jug in the Meiyintang collection to a kiln in these regions.1 This attribution is plausible, as a cord-impressed jug closely related to both the Meyintang piece and the present jar was excavated in Daxi, Panban in Zhejiang province.2

1 Krahl, R, Chinese Ceramics in the Meiyintang Collection, Volume Three (I) London 2006, no. 1107, p. 96
2 Zhongguo taoci quanji vol. II, 1999-2000, plate 9