A Rare and large sancai-glazed reliquary Jar Tang Dynasty

the ovoid jar well-potted and glazed a striking green, encircled by a 'pie-crust' band beneath projecting ribs radiating from the 'pie-crust' rim to a high fillet at the shoulder, the reticulated cover simulating a basket-form holder surmounted by a stupa finial applied in a rich amber glaze, the whole supported on a lotus petal pedestal raised on an elaborate amber-glazed tiered stand, with a balustrade encircling a moat applied with russet-brown finials and a hollow base with ruyi-shaped apertures and scalloped borders, the glaze pooling along the recesses and degraded to a silvery iridescence in places

Tang pagoda-shaped reliquary vessels of this form with distinctive Buddhist influences are rare. Two comparable jars with pagoda-lids and tall elaborate stands, all in sancai glazes, unearthed in 1959 from a Tang tomb site at Zhongbao village, near Xi’an, Shaanxi province, are currently preserved in the Shaanxi Museum of Chinese History. They are illustrated in a number of publications in varying combinations, for example, in Zhongguo taoci quanji, vol. 6, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 128; and in the exhibition Dai tô Chô An ten, Kyoto Bunka Hakubutsukan, Kyoto, 1994, cat.no. 47; and another illustrated in Shaanxi Sheng Bowuguan, Beijing, 1990, pl. 78.

See also a related Tang reliquary jar with a pagoda lid, resting on a lotus platform carried by an elephant, included in the exhibition The Silk Road. Treasures of Tang China, Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1991, p. 115.