Jar with Rouletted Decoration

Over twenty decorative techniques were used at Cizhou and Cizhou-type kilns throughout north China. Probably from Paofeng in Henan province, this jar is ornamented in the scraffito manner with an olive-brown overslip carved through to a white slip with a roulette creating bands of short oblique strokes in close-packed rows all under a clear glaze. Only a few jars decorated in this unusual manner are recorded. They can all be assigned northern origins and may have come from the same kiln. This small vessel is a testament to the decorative ingenuity of Cizhou potters who, with a palette limited mainly to brown-and-white, created an enormous variety of appealing designs.