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Storage Jar

15th-16th century

Vietnam, possibly Champa

Stoneware with incised design under glaze (Go-Sanh ware)

H. 13 1/8 x Diam. 12 in. (33.3 x 30.5 cm)

Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.96

Provenance

John D. Rockefeller 3rd, New York, NY; acquired from Worthington’s Chinese Porcelain, Vienna, VA, 1969.

The Asia Society, New York, NY, bequest of John D. Rockefeller 3rd, 1979.

Licensing inquiries

The lugs on the top of this jar were most likely used to tie down some type of cover, suggesting that this jar was used for storage. Shards discovered in 1974 near the kiln site at Go-sanh and in other nearby villages in central Vietnam provide interesting parallels to this jar's golden-brown glaze, to its reddish body, and to the method of the incised decoration of the free-flowing chrysanthemums beneath the glaze. From 192 to 1471, Go-sanh and the surrounding area of central Vietnam was ruled by the Champa kingdom, although the kilns at Go-sanh more than likely produced their distinctive products for centuries after the political extinction of the Cham state. The strategic location of Champa along the Vietnamese coast made it a port-of-call on the trade routes that linked mainland Southeast Asia with Indonesia, China, and other parts of the world from at least the 8th century on. A container such as this may have been made to serve as storage on the sea trade routes.