Jar with six-lobed divisions

The pear-shaped body of this jar recalls the well-proportioned Liao tea pots with a spout and a handle. The decorative scheme of placing incised ornaments, such as the flower sprays seen here, into each lobed petal of a vessel was probably familiar in Liao ware. There is no archaeological evidence, however, to prove the existence of Liao individual pear-shaped jars, but the probability of their existence is witnessed by late examples in northern ware, such as jun and cizhou types of the Song, the Yuan, and the Jin periods.