Jar with short neck

Adapted from bronze prototypes, the lei, a tall ceramic jar with a proportionally small mouth, was introduced by southern potters in the Eastern Zhou period. Kilns in the area of Zhejiang tried out a new type using ash glaze with stamping designs based on long-existing techniques of high-fired earthenware. Unglazed and glazed lei jars in various qualities of clay, stamped with geometric patterns including the comb design, have been unearthed from tombs of the Warring States period through the Han dynasty in Zhejiang. A glazed lei of hard texture, from a tomb dating to 109, verifies their production in Zhejiang during the middle Eastern Han (WW 1983.6: 40-44).