Lot 218

Han Dynasty Painted Pottery Hu Jar - Mingqi Spirit Vessel

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Lot 218
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Han Dynasty Painted Pottery Hu Jar - Mingqi Spirit Vessel
Han Dynasty Painted Pottery Hu Jar - Mingqi Spirit Vessel
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Han Dynasty Painted Pottery Hu Jar - Mingqi Spirit Vessel

Estimate: $500 - $750

Starting Bid: $250

(0 Bids)
by Artemis Fine Arts
June 25, 2026 9:00 AM MDT (In Progress)
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

East Asia, China, Western Han Dynasty, ca. 206 BCE – 9 CE. A lidded earthenware hu of generous globular body, rising from a splayed foot to a tapering neck and crowned by a domed cover, its chalky white slip washed with traces of red, ochre, and smoky purple pigments arranged in scrolling cloud volutes. The painted ornament unfurls in spirals across shoulder and lid alike, an economical echo of the lacquered prototypes whose costlier brilliance this potter's pigment sought to evoke. Such vessels belonged to the burgeoning repertoire of mingqi, the "spirit goods" devised in the early Han to furnish the tomb with all that the living world afforded. Where Warring States elites had committed jade, bronze, silk, and instruments of music to the grave, the Han turned increasingly to surrogates in low-fired clay, less costly to produce yet equally potent in their symbolic offering. The hu form itself carried a long pedigree as a container for grain or wine, and its presence among the burial goods promised the deceased an unending pantry for the journey ahead. That journey, in Han cosmology, threaded through banks of celestial vapor toward the realm of the immortals, and the swirling motifs that animate this surface are likely a painted invocation of those very mists. The pigments, mineral and unfired, cling lightly to the porous earthenware, and the vessel was never intended to hold liquid, only meaning. Size: 4.8" D x 7.7" H (12.2 cm D x 19.6 cm H).

Provenance: private Colorado, USA collection

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Item # 176930

  • Condition: Very Good. Lid has been repaired from two pieces with break line visible. Expected nicks, small chips, and abrasions, commensurate with age. Otherwise, nice presentation with good remaining pigments.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000