Vase with Floral Scrolls (900s–1000s): Art, History and Details

Vase with Floral Scrolls (900s–1000s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Cizhou ware characteristically shows the use of slip coating, bold designs, and color contrasts to achieve stunning visual effects. This extremely rare and handsome vase is distinguished by its remarkable rhythmic execution of the floral designs achieved by the use of incised and slip-inlaid decoration. With firing, the slip coating and inlaid decoration assumed a soft ivory color whereas the exposed clay body displayed a warm cinnamon brown.

Object facts

• Title: Vase with Floral Scrolls
• Date: 900s–1000s
• Culture: China, Henan province, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: glazed stoneware with incised and slip-inlaid decoration, Cizhou ware
• Dimensions: Diameter of mouth: 12.7 cm (5 in.); Overall: 41.3 cm (16 1/4 in.)
• Collection: China - Song Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1948.226

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hollis, Howard. "More Sung Dynasty Stoneware." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 36, no. 1 (January 1949): 13–14.
• 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.