TWO PAINTED POTTERY JARS AND A BASIN

Description:

China, Neolithic period, Majiayao culture, late 4th to late 3rd millenium BC
D. 21,5 cm / H. 35-37,5 cm
The compressed globular jars with two loop handles and cylindrical necks, the bodies and neck painted in red and black with bold spirals, the basin with a flat base, painted inside and out with circular and undulating lines.
From a European private collection, the basin and the smaller jar acquired at L.H.W. Hong Kong, 12 June 1995 - Partially slightly chipped
Cf. the vessels and basins with Christie's New York, 22 March 2024, lots 906, 1043 and 1045 and 21 March 2019, lot 1218. Cf. the vessel illustrated on the right with S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, p. 1, no. 5 and the basin with a comparable example illustrated on p. 6, no. 4.
These types of storage vessels are the most characteristic objects of the Majiayao culture. The development of these vessels, with their distinctive, often wavy lines and striking black and red pigments, is usually associated with a significant change in the way Chinese ceramics were made. Unlike their predecessors, Majiayao culture vessels were made in centralized workshops, the largest of which was found in Baidaogouping, Gansu. The scale of production suggests that an interaction between the hunter-gatherers of the Qinghai region and the westward expanding Yangshao culture led to a leap in social complexity.