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Small vase with two handles and curved neck

  • China
Small vase with two handles and curved neck
c. 2400-1950 BCE
Beige-pinkish earthenware with balck on red decorations
Cn/31
8,3 cm x 12,3 cm x 10,5 cm
Vessel
Provenance: North-western China (Gansu-Qinghai)
The container is not of fine workmanship and of a very common type. It is a pot-bellied jar, fitted towards the bottom, very narrow at the base and equipped with a large curved neck with an expanded mouth. The rim is connected to the shoulder by two diametrically opposed arched loops, each adorned with a horizontal black band. The rest of the decoration, painted in thick black brushstrokes over a reddish-brownish background, focuses on the inside of the neck and the outside of the vase up to the careen. Inside, below the rim, arches are placed side by side and repeated, using the recurring motif of three concentric “festoons”. The neck decoration is limited to a row of thick herringbone strokes. Along the shoulder of the vase, the decoration consists of four double concentric arches in sequence.