Waterpot with Ram's Head Spout (1700s): Art, History and Details

Waterpot with Ram's Head Spout (1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Pure white jade like this, known to the Chinese as "mutton-fat" jade, is particularly prized. The white color has been the preferred shade of jade throughout the ages. The radiance and purity are linked metaphorically to the virtues of the ideal Confucian scholar. The translucent quality of the jade has moral and poetic allusions attached to it.

Object facts

• Title: Waterpot with Ram's Head Spout
• Date: 1700s
• Culture: China, Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
• Type: Jade
• Technique: white jade
• Dimensions: Overall: 4.7 x 11.8 cm (1 7/8 x 4 5/8 in.)
• Collection: China - Qing Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1964.238

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of the Severance and Greta Millikin Collection. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1990.

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.