Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

The Barlow Collection

A select catalogue of the Barlow collection of Chinese Ceramics, Bronzes and Jades by the University of Sussex (published Sussex, 2006).

The Barlow Collection by the University of Sussex

Publications online: 456 objects

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Black ware jar with ten trigrams

  • loan
  • Literature notes

    The piece bears a very long dedicatory inscription, which is largely obliterated by the thick glaze. It probably includes the cyclical date guiyou, which might refer to the year 1693, or to the equivalent year in an earlier or later 60-year cycle. Similar vase shapes are known from porcelains of the Kangxi period (1662–1722). The piece is very roughly made, with little attention to detail. Instead of the Eight Trigrams – Daoist symbols consisting of eight different combinations of three broken and unbroken lines – an assortment of ten was used on the present piece.

    The jar is exceedingly heavily potted, of tall ovoid shape with flat base, and tall waisted neck. The rough brown stoneware is covered with a thick and opaque, mottled glaze or dark brown ‘tea-dust’ colour, which stops above the base. The piece is decorated by incising with two narrow borders around the shoulder, one filled with scrollwork, the other containing ten trigrams, with another larger scroll border above the foot, and the area between inscribed in vertical lines, between three vertical bands of scrollwork.
  • Details

    Associated place
    Asia China (south) (possible place of creation)
    Date
    possibly 1693
    Qing Dynasty (1645 - 1911)
    Material and technique
    stoneware, thrown, with incised decoration under a brown iron glaze
    Dimensions
    39.5 cm (height)
    20.2 cm (diameter)
    at base 10.3 cm (diameter)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    containervessel jar
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Lent by the Sir Alan Barlow Collection Trust.
    Accession no.
    LI1301.296
  • Further reading

    University of Sussex, and Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Barlow Collection, supervised by Regina Krahl, Maurice Howard, and Aiden Leeves (Sussex: University of Sussex, 2006), no. C292

Glossary (2)

glaze, stoneware

  • glaze

    Vitreous coating applied to the surface of a ceramic to make it impermeable or for decorative effect.

  • stoneware

    Ceramic material made of clay which is fired to a temperature of c.1200-1300⁰c and is often buff or grey in colour.

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • The Barlow Collection by the University of Sussex

    The Barlow Collection

    The piece bears a very long dedicatory inscription, which is largely obliterated by the thick glaze. It probably includes the cyclical date guiyou, which might refer to the year 1693, or to the equivalent year in an earlier or later 60-year cycle. Similar vase shapes are known from porcelains of the Kangxi period (1662–1722). The piece is very roughly made, with little attention to detail. Instead of the Eight Trigrams – Daoist symbols consisting of eight different combinations of three broken and unbroken lines – an assortment of ten was used on the present piece.

    The jar is exceedingly heavily potted, of tall ovoid shape with flat base, and tall waisted neck. The rough brown stoneware is covered with a thick and opaque, mottled glaze or dark brown ‘tea-dust’ colour, which stops above the base. The piece is decorated by incising with two narrow borders around the shoulder, one filled with scrollwork, the other containing ten trigrams, with another larger scroll border above the foot, and the area between inscribed in vertical lines, between three vertical bands of scrollwork.
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