Featured Need help to identify martaban jar, Tang Pottery?

Hi, is there any one able to help identify this martaban jar pottery. The color is Sancai color, green, mohammadan blue, amber brown and milky white. The decorations are incised, medals, square mark, standing dragon, phoenix bird. Dimension is 55 high, bottom is concave and without glass. 6 lid at the mouth.

I suspect it is Tang or Liao pottery, so I did a wet and smell test. Water has produced a very strong smell at the bottom.

Any idea what is it? Honestly it is haunted, but I love its appearance. I am trying to find information if it is worthy to keep it or not.















I hope for your insight, thank you.

 

I wish I could help but as you probably know genuine Tang Sancai are hard to tell.
The smell and wet test is a good start ( if we are talking about the same thing?) Does the moist from the tip of your finger soak up quickly and leave a dark spot?
Sancai glazes are usually applied over a white slip, which if not wrong, is present here. There also should be a mesh of fine crackles in the glaze.
If you really thing this could be Tang or Liao, then I hands-on inspection by an expert will be needed.
I am not sure what the base of such vessel should be from the period. I would think more of a flat bottom than concave?

 

Is there a possibility to take it to a renown museum to see what they might say??

 

Thank you for your great insight. Yes moist from my finger soak quickly and leave a dark spot. And the green seem applied above the milky white base, if we see from the medal glass (white accidently spilt with green)and especially the gather between white (in the near bottom side) and the green (at the upper side). And if we see the green there is a very hard crackle, but not with pattern. The crackle is seen easily in the mouth picture.

Only about the bottom, it is concave, some are already cover with dark black dirt that is never seen in Ming Era Martaban. The dark might be because it was buried for long times.

But thank you for adding valuable insight.

 

I think it is so hard to find museum in Indonesia with the research ability like at US. And it is about 20 kilograms in weight I think, so the best option is only ttl test if I would find expert aboard. But thank you for your idea, I'll try to find some one, antique lover might be near by my place.

 

I guess a TL test is expensive, hope it's worth doing one.
Were not Sancai objects buried in tombs? It would be normal to have some dirt but I guess it should not be that much.

 

In Borneo, they used as a container of human body, and it is buried in the forest with only 1/3 about near the mouth outside the soil. Might be the dirt come from this. Some excavation from graves by antique expert abroad has confirm about finding Tang potteries, but never heard martaban from Tang Dynasty. My father bartered this martaban with an ox to get it from native forest people 25 years ago.

 

I haven't done the research, but if I were you I'd start with that cobalt blue dragon. Can you find any early examples -- e.g., Tang or Liao -- with cobalt blue? Cobalt was long a rare and expensive material. Can you find much if any use of it on these jars before very late Ming / early Qing?

As I said,you'll have to do the research; I'm just raising the question.

 

Rarely, cobalt blue can be seen on Tang Sancai pieces. I would think they would have used it on more important pieces.

 

Nobody seems quite clear where these jars were made, but the most reasonable explanation is S China, probably Guangdong or perhaps Fujian.

Tang Sancai, on the other hand, comes from northern kilns in Henan.

Point is, for jars like this the OP needs to look for early examples of cobalt blue from Guangdong or perhaps Fujian.

 

Thank you for your great insight. Cobalt blue is exist from Tang Dynasty : Tang Qinghua - high copper, high iron, low manganese, rich and dark blue with faint evasion, source not yet identified. Several sorces are possibly like Persia (Iran, Afghanistan), India, Egypt, and western Asia Minor along the shores of the Mediterranean. (gotheborg.com). The mohammedan blue, it is usually named.

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Picture from : http://medievalarchive.weebly.com/chinese-ceramics.html

The dragon style that is something I still tried to find the info. Thank you.

 

i also have a large jar of which i don't know the origin. Can someone help.

 

you already have a thread about this grand vase.

posting it again on someone else's thread , will likely draw ire , not more information....

 

how can i remove it?

 

what's done is done