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Here's an ash glazed jar (about 18 cm high) with really beautiful form; possibly Thai or Vietnamese. Other opinions/suggestions? Thanks!

I've been doing some research and I think I found an analogy with my jar in the book "Pre-Tang ceramics of China, William Watson, 1991. Shown in color plate VI, is a larger jar with nearly identical form, similar glaze and suface incising, from the Victoria and Albert Museum, attributed as "proto-stoneware, late 1st century BC to early 1st century AD, Western Han or Xin. If anyone would like to see the the analogous piece please post and I'll upload a scanned image.

Dear Robert,

Can you post a pic, front view, of the handles.
Han dynasty jar handels are very typical, maybe you can compare with the one you found in Watson's book.
At first glance, the shape of your jar does not seems to correspond with the Han Dy. normal jars.

Best regards,
Pierre.

Dear Pierre,

Thank you for your reply.

I attach here a picture of one of the ring handles on my jar. I was not able to scan the similar jar in the "Watson" book; however, the handles are not shown head-on in the book, anyway. Watson's disciption of these vases is as follows: (one type of vase made in the ware called proto-porcelain) "has a piriform body rising in a smooth cyma curve to a flared mouth... (These vases have) two reliefs of ring handles on the shoulder , always decorated with an escutcheon displaying a mask varying between taotie, lion and human face, or a linear abstraction of these motifs. From the middle of the vase upwards, the side is divided into horizontal bands by incised lines, and in the spaces so defined are often figures of (stylized)birds or dragons...". He goes on to state that such vases were only produced for a relatively short time, with the bulk of production limited to the first century AD.

For those interested, here are some other pics of handles from jars dated Warring States (pic 1) to late Western/early Easten Han. The squiggly double-S applied above the handle in pic 1 is said to be more characteristic of Warring States period. Another interesting feature on most of these jars in the lack of glaze immediately under the handles. This was speculated by others to be due the the glazing technique by application of dry powdered clay/ash rather than a liquid slurry. Another interesting feature that I see is the fine horizontal banding in the unglazed areas, which is characteristic of hand building by coiling rather than wheel forming.

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