The compressed body is raised on a short straight foot, the body of the waterpot crisply moulded with beady eyes on the head, the legs and warts, further decorated and accentuated with incised decoration.
A ‘Yue’ celadon-glazed ‘frog’ waterpot (Western Jin dynasty, 265-316 AD)
Description
Dimensions: 8cm long
Provenance:
Spink & Son, London, 1983
A private Belgian collection
The compressed body is raised on a short straight foot, the body of the waterpot crisply moulded with beady eyes on the head, the legs and warts, further decorated and accentuated with incised decoration.
The Jin dynasty ((265–420 AD) was a period marked by political instability and fragmentation, which paradoxically created an environment of artistic freedom and experimentation for potters and the flourishing of the Yue ware kilns in Zhejiang province, during the period. This artistic freedom gave rise to a distinctive array of ceramics, including vessels and figurines with striking animal shapes, both real and mythical, including the current example.
Compare two similarly modelled frog-shaped water pots, one in the Zhejiang Province Cultural Relics Bureau, Jinhua City and another in the Shanghai Museum, both illustrated in ‘Zhongguo mei shu fen lei quan ji: The Complete Works of Chinese Ceramics’ Vol.4, Shanghai, 2000, no.131 and 132. Compare a closely related example at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, China/5000 Years, 5 June 2020, 336.
