Ovoid form with a short sprout, short neck and two loop handles on shoulder, covered with sancai glaze, lower part of the body and flat base left without glaze, Tang dynasty, 618 - 907, acquired from a private collector in NYC
Tang Sancai refers to the tri-color glazed pottery of the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD), a painted earthenware which appeared in the wake of celadon, and developed on the basis of the green and brown glazed pottery of the Han Dynasty (206 - 220 BC). It is called tri-color glaze (Sancai) because yellow, green and brown were often used, although the enamel palette contains more colors. If there is a technical explanation of the term it might be that the colors actually are based on specifically three different oxides i.e. iron giving yellow to brown hues, copper giving green or occasionally brown colors and the rare cobalt for blue. The colors can occur as monochromes or together.