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Scientific Analysis Report: A thermoluminescence analysis report issued by Oxford Authentication on 4 August 2026, based on sample number C126j67, sets the firing date of both samples taken between 3100 and 4600 years ago, consistent with the dating above. A copy of the report accompanies this lot.
Expert’s note
Few creations of Majiayao pottery are as rare or arresting as animal-form vessels, and the present bird is exceptional even within this remarkably small group. Whereas most surviving examples merely evoke an avian form through an asymmetrical neck, projecting handle, or pointed tail, here the vessel has been transformed into a fully realized bird, with a vigorously modeled crested head, large painted eyes, feathered neck, and elongated hollow beak, while the powerful spirals sweeping across its rounded body take on the appearance of magnificent stylized plumage.
The open beak ingeniously unites image and function, transforming the bird itself into the spout of a vessel intended for pouring liquid. Like much Majiayao pottery, it may have served during life before accompanying its owner into the tomb; the extraordinary care devoted to its elaborate form suggests that it was intended for an important communal or ceremonial context rather than ordinary storage. Its precise significance remains unknown, yet the bird evidently held a potent place in the imagination of prehistoric northwest China. The fundamental conception embodied here—the transformation of a functional container into a living animal—would remain an enduring current in Chinese art, reappearing in the bird-shaped ritual bronzes of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the chicken-headed and phoenix-form ewers of later centuries, and the ceramic ewers, water droppers, and sculptural vessels produced by Chinese potters into the present day.
China, c. 2200-2000 BC. Well modeled, the globular body supported on a spreading foot, the spout formed as the neck and head of a bird with prominent crest and long beak, the exterior boldly painted in black and reddish-brown pigments with interlaced scroll designs evoking the wings, the neck with stylized feathers, and the head with a pair of large round eyes.
Provenance: The private collection of a Swedish missionary, assembled in Gansu Province, China, during the 1940s, and thence by descent. Collection of Lennart Utterstr?m, Sweden, by 2011. Collection of Dr. Erik Lampl, Paris, acquired from the above. A copy of the purchase agreement between Lennart Utterstr?m and Erik Lampl, detailing a down-payment plan starting July 2011 and stating a purchase price for the present lot of SEK 130,000 or approx. EUR 16,000 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing), accompanies the lot. Lennart Utterstr?m (b. 1948) is a Swedish visual artist, writer, and former journalist whose work reflects a lifelong engagement with Asian culture, history, and aesthetics. After an early career writing on international affairs and education, particularly in East and Southeast Asia, he devoted himself increasingly to the visual arts, producing paintings, drawings, prints, and ink works inspired by both Scandinavian and Asian artistic traditions. His publications include works on Chinese art and exhibitions of his own artwork. He also has a background as an art professor at Hengyang Normal University in Hunan, China, an experience that further shaped his cross-cultural artistic practice and deep connection with Chinese art and education.
Condition: Good condition with expected wear, firing irregularities, signs of prolonged burial, rubbing and minor losses to pigments, light touchups, small chips along the foot rim, fine hairline cracks to interior foot. Two small holes from sample-taking, now filled.
Weight: 3.1 kg
Dimensions: Height 36.7 cm, Length 38.5 cm
The Majiayao culture, a Neolithic society that flourished along the upper reaches of the Yellow River between approximately 3300 and 2000 BC, is renowned for its painted pottery and its pivotal contribution to the development of early Chinese ceramics. Named after the type-site at Majiayao in present-day Gansu Province, the culture extended across much of Gansu and Qinghai, reaching into the eastern Tibetan Plateau, and represents a significant stage in the increasing social and artistic sophistication of prehistoric China.
Building upon ceramic traditions established by the earlier Yangshao culture, Majiayao potters refined hand-building techniques, principally coiling, to produce vessels of remarkable technical and aesthetic quality. Their wares are distinguished by finely burnished buff-colored surfaces decorated with bold black or reddish-brown mineral pigments. Dynamic compositions of spirals, curvilinear bands, waves, and geometric motifs envelop the vessel, creating balanced and rhythmically ordered designs. While the precise meaning of these motifs remains uncertain, they are widely understood to reflect aspects of the natural environment and the symbolic world of Neolithic communities.
The distinctive ceramic tradition of the Majiayao culture spread widely across northwestern China, exerting a lasting influence on neighboring cultures and fostering a shared visual vocabulary that extended into regions of Central Asia. Today, Majiayao pottery is regarded as one of the most accomplished achievements of Neolithic Chinese art, celebrated for both its technical refinement and its enduring artistic innovation.
Literature comparison:
Animal-form vessels from the Majiayao culture are extremely rare, although a few examples of more stylized form are recorded in museum collections. Compare a related smaller Majiayao vessel in the shape of a waterfowl, Banshan phase, 9.8 cm high, in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, object number B86P10; and a related Majiayao bird-shaped urn, Banshan phase, 26.7 cm high, in the Cleveland Museum of Art, accession number 2007.276.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Sotheby’s New York, 28 June 2024, lot 62
Price: USD 15,600 or approx. EUR 14,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A very rare painted pottery humanoid head jar and cover, Neolithic period, Majiayao culture, circa 3300-2000 BC
Expert remark: Compare the related decoration, motifs, and anthropomorphic form. Note the size (27.3 cm).
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