Jar with four handles

The linen impressed design on this piece represents the survival of a type of ornamentation which began to be applied to high-fired pottery in the Neolithic period and was later used on a variety of wares in the south. The outstanding features that this piece shares with the enormous number of southern jars are the handles impressed into the shoulder with the fingers. Fundamentally different from common celadon types, brown glazes developed in Zhejiang as the first step in the development of black iron glazes in the late Han period. This piece, with its sophisticated shape, hard texture, and even brown glaze, is a rare specimen unconventionally combining features of different times.