China

Title

Globular shaped bowl

Place of origin

China

Period

Eastern Zhou circa 770 - 256 BCE → Zhou dynasty circa 1100 - 256 BCE → China

Year

circa 770 BCE-256 BCE

Media category

Ceramic

Materials used

grey earthenware, unglazed

Dimensions

6.7 x 9.1cm (irreg.)

Signature & date

Not signed. Not dated.

Credit

Bequest of Eleanor Hinder through her executors 1975

Accession number

263.1975

Location

Not on display

Further information

This bowl belongs to a long tradition of purely utilitarian ceramics that dates back to Neolithic times. Wares made for ordinary household purposes, for cooking, storage and carrying water had never been as decorative as the funerary pieces. Made from fine-grained, grey clay, these everyday pots were either made by using a pad and beater or by using coils of clay. The unglazed surface was usually decorated with a fine impressed pattern, sometimes achieved through pressing cloth into the damp clay. From Neolithic times, through the Shang dynasty, and into the Han dynasty, unglazed earthenwares of practical but rather crude shapes continued to be made for domestic purposes.

It should be mentioned that while the earthenware tradition continued, already in the Shang dynasty potters were making stoneware, that is, dense, hard pottery, impervious to water and fired at about 1200 degrees Celsius. It was also in the Shang dynasty that potters deliberately began applying glazes to the stonewares. However, glazed stonewares were only a small percentage of Shang ceramics, albeit significant in a consideration of the historical development of Chinese ceramics.

Jackie Menzies, 'Early Chinese Ceramics', AGNSW, 1983. cat.no. VII. (illus.).

Bibliography (1)

Jackie Menzies, Early Chinese Art 1983, Sydney, 1983, not paginated (illus.). cat.no. VII. See 'Further Information' for text.

Exhibition history (1)

Early Chinese art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 26 Feb 1983–08 May 1983

Collection

China