Hexagonal vase with molded animal-head handles

This classical shape presents devices designed originally for bronzes, such as the built-in rings on each side and the openings in the foot. Related to the previous vase (cat. no. 277), it was also produced during the peak period of the longquan kilns with considerable attention to the harmony of shape and to the bronze-green quality of the glaze. A work of the same shape with molded relief decoration on the body unearthed from a 1276 tomb in Lishui, where kilns prospered at the time, provides a time frame for its production(Zhejiang Light Industry Bureau 1989: pl. 7, fig. 4). Increasingly copied by Yuan potters, vases with ringed handles were later modified to a form with a more rounded body.