Featured Oriental Lidded Jar - Any info appreciated

I only have one piece of Oriental pottery and since I know absolutely nothing about pottery, I wondered if anyone here might give me some clues about its country of origin, what it was used for, age, etc. - anything! I got this lidded jar years ago at a small antique shop. An Asian antiques seller and I had been talking over several days about some items, and he said that there was a piece next door that "they didn't know what they had." He said something about the black glaze. We went over and even though it was a lot of money for me at the time, I thought it was interesting looking with a neck instead of a continuous shape from top to bottom and it seemed to be very vibrantly colored. It has no marks anywhere except for the tiny label with a 31 that is new. It was hard to photograph because it is a deep shiny black, so forgive the photographic inadequacy.

 

It is Chinese. That black colour is called 'Famille Noir'.
Some Chinese porcelain is called by the 'family' colour, the dominant colour. Famille Noir means black family. For a long time it was difficult to get large areas of black right, so it is more rare than for instance Famille Rose, the pink family.

 

Ah ha. Now I understand why he said something about the black color. Thank you very much.

 

Pretty! ...and too nice to prop up on the back of your truck!

Nice find - sounds like you really had to have it, or it needed you to find it

 

Truck and display shelf all in one. Endless uses.