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Public Domain

Large Amphora with Dragon-Head Handles

601

Scroll

Large Amphora with Dragon-Head Handles

601

Physical Qualities Stoneware with straw-colored glaze over white slip, 22 3/8 H x 10 1/4 Diam. in. (56.8 x 26 cm.)
Credit Line Julius Levy Memorial Fund
Object Number 1994.249
The heavy body is resonant when struck. The dish mouth has flaring side and slightly rolled rim; four pairs of double raised rings encircle neck; full rounded shoulder tapers to foot everted at bottom edge. Double strap handles with deep scoring to imitate twisted rope and decorated with six applied "buttons" form the bodies and high arched necks terminating in dragon heads that bite the deep mouth rim. The dragons have bulging eyes, large pointed ears, curled and ridged top-knots; there are six floral appliques on the shoulder of the body on either side of and below each handle, and a series of faint incised lines. The vessel is covered with a straw glaze of pale olive tone.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 1994; Christie's, New York; Arthur M. Sackler Collection, by 1978
"3500 Years of Chinese Ceramics from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections," Tel Aviv Museum, Israel, July 9-October 31, 1978.
"The Arthur M. Sackler Collections," Christiess, New York, 12/1/1994, lot 146.
Frances Klapthor, BMA, "Asian Art at The Baltimore Museum of Art, Accessions, 1960-2000, Ways to Wealth," November 2005-July 2006.
Frances Klapthor, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Chinese Mortuary Ceramics from the Collection," December 2008-December 2009.

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