PRIESTLEY & FERRARO CHINESE ART
Sold to a private collector at the 2001 Asian Art in London exhibition
A Yingqing four-handled jar
Porcelain
Northern Song dynasty
(960–1127 A.D.), 11th century
Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi
H. 4 3/8" (11.2 cm)
Courtesy of Priestley & Ferraro Chinese Art

The body of this jar is of barrel shape, with a narrow shelf to mark off the shoulders, sloping up to the short-waisted neck with flat, everted rim. Four short strap handles link the underside of the rim to the middle of the shoulders. The vessel’s interior and exterior have a very pale blue glaze reaching to the flat base, which is unglazed and shows the white ware with traces of four roughly oval kiln supports.

No yingqing jar of this rare four-handled form appears in the published literature. A possible source for the inspiration of this form is a type of early Dingyao jar, of which there is an example in the Percival David Collection. The Dingyao jar, dated to a.d. 1000
is of roughly similar shape, also with four square lug handles, but with carved decoration (see Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Ding and Allied Wares [1980], p1. II, 6).