Celadon Jar

Wu Zhou ware, Three Kingdoms Period (222 - 280 AD)
Shanghai Museum

Wuzhou was a kiln producing early celadon porcelain in Zhejiang province. The type of design illustrated here was for funeral use, and would obviously have been impractical in daily life. The gourd-shaped, human-headed vase is augmented by four piled-on smaller vases, of similar form, and decorated with small figures of foreign entertainers - flute players and the like - with prominent eyebrows over button-shaped eyes, peaked noses, and beards.

There is a similar example in the Zhejiang Provincial Museum.