This jar is truly an amazing piece, which is hard to portray in pictures. The quality of glaze, markings and shape is really great. I bought the jar at Dries Blitz, a great scholar on early wares. He mentioned a repair to the vase and recommended buying this one. Through the small damage the piece came within my reach.

The vase is made of a light oatmeal colored pottery. The lustrous black glaze is embellished with brushmarks in a somewhat matted iron red. Notice the obvious coil method of making the jar, and the beautiful flattened rim.

Mr. Blitz mentions the Ding kilns as a possible kiln of making. Although it is hard to prove this. I found two possible reference pieces to support this idea, one of Sotheby’s, the other in the form of a pillow in the Kwan collection.

Other possibilities are Henan kilns or Cizhou kilns. Anyway the dating is Northern Song dynasty 960-1127. It has a lovely size of 21,5 cm.