Jar with lotus scrolls and calligraphic inscriptions

This particularly striking jar bears lotus scrolls against a wavy background on the upper part and a long poem written in the running script on the lower body. Cizhou potters started writing three- or four-characters inscriptions on their wares during the eleventh to twelfth centuries. Beginning in the Yuan, the inscriptions became longer, conveying messages that ranged from the date of the piece's manufacture, the locations or the studio, the name of the person who commissioned the piece, to lines of poetry. Two types of wares commonly decorated with calligraphy are jars with small mouths for holding wine (Shanghai Mus. 1981 vol. 1: 108) and short-bodied, broad jars with large mouths for storing food (KG 1973.5: 281). No equivalent to this handsome jar has yet been traced.