Ewer with a Lion-shaped Spout (900s–1000s): Art, History and Details

Ewer with a Lion-shaped Spout (900s–1000s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This remarkable ewer is most likely a very early and rare type of Yaozhou ware, with the shape and decoration recalling Tang metal ware. High quality pieces like this might have been sent as tribute to the Northern Song court. Yaozhou ware, or northern celadon, appeared to have been made in the north in emulation of the southern Yue ware. But its green glaze has a deep olive-green tone, and potters fully exploited the contrasting tones of the glaze over the incised and carved decoration to create rich textural effects.

Object facts

• Title: Ewer with a Lion-shaped Spout
• Date: 900s–1000s
• Culture: China, Shaanxi province, Tongchuan, Huangbaozhen, Five Dynasties period (907-960) or Northern Song dynasty (960-1126)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: green-glazed porcelaneous stoneware with modeled, carved and incised decoration, Yaozhou ware
• Dimensions: Overall: 18.3 cm (7 3/16 in.)
• Collection: China - Song Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1948.220

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Balazs, Étienne, Jacques Gernet, Marie-Roberte Guignard, and Max Kaltenmark. L’art de la Chine des Song. Paris: Musée Cernuschi, 1956.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.

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.