TWO-HANDLED JAR, Cizhou kiln, Song Dynasty (960–1279 CE)

A two-handled jar from the Cizhou kiln of the Song dynasty.

Height 38.5 cm; body diameter 25 cm. From a low footring the lower body rises, expanding markedly upward and swelling into a rounded profile at the upper body. A long neck rises from the shoulder and opens widely outward at the mouth. The rim is thick and turned back in a rounded form, and a pair of annular lugs is attached at the junction of shoulder and neck.

The twin lugs are not handholds but loops for threading cord. They were likely used to secure a rope during transport or to fasten a cloth or lid over the mouth. The wide opening allows for easy loading and unloading, and the rounded, taut body provides ample capacity. The vessel is thought to have served as a storage container for liquids such as wine or water.

The Cizhou kilns were the foremost folk kilns of North China during the Song dynasty. Numerous workshops operated, principally in southern Hebei, producing a wide range of utilitarian wares—bowls, basins, pillows, as well as bottles and jars used in everyday life. White-ground, black-painted wares are well known, but in fact the kilns produced many varieties of glaze, including white, black, brown, and green. Large two-handled jars such as this one likewise attest to the breadth of their output.

The green glaze remains thick from the neck to the shoulder, shifting in hue from olive to yellow-brown and then to dark brown. On the lower part of the body the glaze has flaked away, exposing a grayish ground and a reddish‑brown clay body. Fine crazing extends across the glaze surface, with glossy and dry areas intermingling. Rather than a uniformly finished surface, the appeal lies in the layered colors that have developed through firing and prolonged use.

A crack extends from the body to the footring and has been repaired. The glaze shows areas of flaking and encrustation, yet the rim, neck, paired handles, body, and footring are all intact, preserving the vessel’s overall form. As a large example measuring 38.5cm in height, it well conveys the sense of mass characteristic of northern Song ceramics and the surface changes accrued over a long period.