Description: A GREEN-GLAZED EARTHENWARE ‘IMMORTAL ISLAND’ JAR AND COVER, BOSHANLU
China, Eastern Han dynasty
21 cm high
Raising on three bear’s head feet, the cylindrical body with a series of moulded circular lines, a geometrical frieze toward the mouth, two lion’s heads masks, the domed cover moulded with mountain peaks, four moulded fantastic animals around the central peak, a series of moulded animals along the rim of the cover, the piece overall covered with a dark green glaze.
Provenance: ambassador Francesco Rausi.
For a similar jar, see Spirit of Han. Ceramics for the After-Life, Singapore 1991, p. 132, n. 123; see also S. Pierson, Chinese Ceramics, Londra 2009, p. 14, fig. 7, for a covered censer of the same type in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.