Celadon Ewer Carved with Garden Scenery

The ewer was made in the Longquan kiln complex in south China’s Zhejiang province. It has a pear-shaped body, a flaring lip, a long and curving spout, and a foot ring. Such ewers, characterized by sleek lines, are poetically named “spring-in-jade jar” (yuhuchun ping). A carved panel links the neck with the upper part of the spout. In the Yuan dynasty, ewers were used for pouring wine. Under the celadon glaze on the clay body, the ewer is carved with a design depicting garden scenery: balustrades, banana trees, lake rocks, and flowers.
The beauty of Longquan ware lies in elegant shapes cloaked in a multi-layered jade-like glaze of lustrous blue-green. Decoration on extant vessels consists of stylized lotus petals on the bowls and saucers, twin fish in relief inside shallow basins, and on the necks of vases, dragons, phoenixes or fish form loop-handles.