A Russet-Spashed Black Glazed Twin Handled Jar, China Northern Song-Jin

China, A Russet-Spashed Black Glazed Twin Handled Jar, Northern Song-Jin Dynasty , 12/13th Century

The jar is well potted with an ovoid body and the neck flanked by strap handles well defined with vertical ribs below the lipped rim.

The exterior is covered with a lustrous black glaze liberally splashed in russet that thins to a lighter color on the loop handles and stops above the foot exposing the buff body.

The inside of the neck is glazed black while the remainder of the interior is covered with a thin glaze of clear color.
Small visible firing defect on the top lip.

Notable for its abstract splash design over a lustrous black glaze, jars of this type, with a sturdy ovoid body and straight neck enlivened by two handles, were popular in the Song dynasty and made at various kilns in northern China. Black-glazed jars decorated with irregular russet splashes are discussed by Robert D. Mowry in the catalogue to the exhibition Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 1995, p. 146, where he notes that vessels of this type, left unglazed above the foot, have been recovered at the Cicun kilns, near Zibo in Shandong province, while those with a thin layer of brown glaze covering the lowest part, are more commonly associated with kilns in Henan and Hebei province.

A splashed jar of similar form in the Meiyintang collection, is published in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994, vol. I, pl. 463; another was included in the exhibition Tausend Jahre Chinesische Keramik aus Privatbesitz, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, 1974, cat. no. 55; and a third is published in Fuji? K?yama, T?ji taikei: Temmoku [Outlines of ceramics: Temmoku], vol. 38, Tokyo, 1974, pl. 64.
A further jar of this type, from the Malcolm collection, was sold at Sothebys 29th March 1977, lot 161; and from the collection of Philip Kappel was sold in Sothebys New York , 4th June 1982, lot 155.

Traditionally referred to as guan, shuang’er guan (“double-eared jar”) or gualeng guan (“melon jar”), this form is known in a variety of sizes, with or without russet splashes.
10,8 x 13,8