Bottle Vase

This type of tall pear-shaped bottle-vase with long neck and flared mouth is called a yuhuchunping by the Chinese. Typically used as a display vase for carefully arranged floral displays, it is one of the most elegant shapes in Chinese ceramics. This example features floral patterns that were carved through the white slip to reveal the contrasting grey of the clay body. This was a common decorative technique at Cizhou kilns in North China during the Song, Jin, and Yuan dynasties (11th-14th centuries). More commonly, a dark-brown glaze was carved to reveal a lighter clay body, opposite of the light on dark effect seen here.