Jarre bu 瓿

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M.C. 8993

Bu jars 瓿 are round-bodied vessels commonly produced in ceramic in eastern China between the second half of the Western Han and the late Eastern Han dynasty.
The production of glazed ceramics dates back to the Shang (1765-1122 BC). In the course of the Zhou dynasty (1122-256 BC), it spread from the Huang He basin 黄河 to the Yangtze valley 長江. The lower reaches of the Yangtze became the principal region of production during the Warring States period (453-222 BC).
The Cernuschi Museum jar is characteristic of a type produced between the 1st century BC and the first half of the 1st century AD. Its has a globular body and handles impressed with masks and surmounted by modelled decorations. The upper part of the belly is adorned with three lines in relief incised with grooves. The lip is flat. The incised decoration consists in two bands of motifs suggesting birds in flight, echoing the decoration of contemporary bronzes.
The upper part of the jar M.C. 8993 is covered with a green glaze. This coating was apparently obtained by shaking ashes (or a mixture of ashes and clay) through a sieve over the jar. During firing, the wood ash (or ash-clay mixture) would react with the clay content of the jar to produce a calciferous glaze. The clay is porcelain-stone-based but its less rational, less exclusive use than later on did not enable the production of porcellaneous stoneware.
Perhaps originally used for funerary or ritual purposes, bu jars are thought later to have served as everyday vessels.

Reference(s) : Yutaka Mino, Katherine R. Tsiang , Ice and green clouds : traditions of Chinese celadon, Indianapolis : Indianapolis Museum of Art ; Bloomington : university of Indiana Press, 1986.
Michèle Pirazzoli-T'serstevens,  "De l’efficacité plastique à la productivité : les grès porcelaineux du Jiangnan au IIIe-Ive siècles de notre ère", T’oung-Pao, 1998, vol. 84, fasc. 1-3, p. 21-61.
Katherine R. Tsiang,  "Glazed stonewares of the Han dynasty, part one : the eastern group”, Artibus Asiae, 1978, vol. 40, n°2-3, p. 143-176.
Nigel Wood,  Chinese glazes : their origins, chemistry, and recreation, London : A & C Black ; Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.