Unknown Artist
- Title
- Wine jar
- Place of origin
-
Laos
- Cultural origin
- Khmer
- Year
- 12th century-13th century
- Media category
- Ceramic
- Materials used
- stoneware with dark brown-black glaze
- Dimensions
-
64.5 x 46.0cm; 15.4cm diam. of rim
- Signature & date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- D G Wilson Bequest Fund 2001
- Accession number
- 157.2001
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
Jars like this were used in Laos at festivals or celebratory events, such as the rice festival. Celebrants sat around the jar drinking a sweet, spicy rice wine (ruon) through curved reeds (can). The jar is typical of a type of large ceramic wine or storage vessel produced in the so-called Angkorean region of Southeast Asia, which at its zenith extended from Cambodia to southern Laos and across to northeastern Thailand. Since such vessels were produced for domestic use and not as articles of trade, they are rarely found outside Southeast Asia. Characteristically, they were heavily potted with a tall oval body, sloping shoulders decorated with pinched lugs and a narrow mouth.
Asian Art Department, AGNSW, June 2003
- Bibliography (3)
-
'Laos', The Asian Collections Art Gallery of New South Wales 2003, 2003, 306 (colour illus.).
Dawn Rooney (Author), Khmer Ceramics, Singapore, 1984.
Roxanna M Brown (Author), The ceramics of South-East Asia: Their dating and identification, Malaysia, 1977.
