Covered Jar (early 700s): Art, History and Details

Covered Jar (early 700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This covered cylindrical jar with three animal feet is lavishly covered with a cobalt blue glaze in the exterior and an amber glaze in the interior. Of the colored lead glazes of sancai (three-color) ware, blue was preeminent and precious. Imported cobalt from Persia (Iran, Afghanistan) was used as a glaze colorant that yields a rich, brilliant blue of considerable splendor.

Object facts

• Title: Covered Jar
• Date: early 700s
• Culture: China, Tang dynasty (618–907)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: glazed earthenware
• Dimensions: Overall: 14.4 cm (5 11/16 in.); Diameter of lid: 11.5 cm (4 1/2 in.)
• Collection: China - Tang Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1948.228

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hollis, Howard. "T'ang Dynasty Pottery." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 35, no. 10 (December 1948): 220–221.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.