Collection
China
- Title
- Ewer with Chicken head and dragon handle
- Other titles:
- Mingqi ewer
- Place of origin
-
China
- Period
- Tang dynasty 618 - 907 → China
- Year
- 0618-0907
- Media category
- Ceramic
- Materials used
- stoneware with clear glaze
- Dimensions
-
6.1cm diam. of mouth; 23.2 x 11.8cm
- Credit
- Gift of Mr Sydney Cooper 1962
- Accession number
- EC62.1962
- Location
- Lower Asian gallery
- Further information
This elegantly shaped ewer has a long neck and a broad shoulder decorated with a rooster stretching its neck and four looped hoops. Opposite the rooster is a long handle in the shape of a thirsty dragon whose mouth is biting deeply into the rim of the ewer. Here the rooster ('ji' in Chinese) is a pun of the word for luck. It can also represent the phoenix. Together, the dragon and the rooster symbolise male and female -“yin” and “yang” - the two forces on which the cosmos operates.
Asian Art Department, AGNSW, January 2012
- Bibliography (2)
-
Mr V V W Fretwell, Mr L G Harrison, Ivan McMeekin and J. Hepburn Myrtle (Compilators), Chinese ceramics 1965, Sydney, 1965, 18. cat.no. 19
Jackie Menzies, Early Chinese Art 1983, Sydney, 1983, (illus.) not paginated. cat.no. XXVIII. See 'Further Information' for text.
- Exhibition history (4)
-
An Englishman's Home, David Jones Ltd, Sydney, 1941 -
Chinese Ceramics, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 11 Aug 1965–12 Sep 1965
Early Chinese art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 26 Feb 1983–08 May 1983
Dragon (2012), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 18 Jan 2012–06 May 2012
