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

The Eight Trigrams which are roughly indicated on the sides of this vessel, are made up of different combinations of three broken and unbroken lines. They are Daoist symbols used in divination, but are often used purely decoratively.

The rounded basin has a flat disk attached on the underside, where it was supported during firing, and stands on three feet in form of animal masks. The outside is carved with deep horizontal grooves, divided by vertical strokes of different lengths to indicate the Eight Trigrams, with six bosses applied below the rim to evoke a drum shape (compare another basin in the Barlow Collection, [LI1301.99]). The feet are moulded in relief with eyes and eyebrows and terminate in deeply lobed outward curving tips reminiscent of paws. The piece is covered with a thin layer of glaze which has fired a yellowish straw colour and leaves a large uneven patch in the centre and another on the underside exposed in the rough pale purplish-beige biscuit. The undersides of two legs have been ground down, perhaps to straighten the vessel.