Well head

As a new type of mortuary object which first appears in the Han dynasty, pottery well models tended to imitate the actual wooden frames constructed over wells. Han well models can be divided into three types according to their region of production: the Central Plains type, the south central region type, and the Guangdong type. The Central Plains style shown here is marked by molded pictorial representations on the outer sides depicting images ranging from scenes of everyday life to illustrations of immortal creatures, the whole usually framed by geometric friezes. Unglazed rectangular models were mass produced in Henan (KGXB 1963.2: pl. 5; KG 1963.2: pl. 6.4).