Wine Bottle

late 13th-early 14th century

These bottles were made at a time when Japan’s elite admired and collected the green-glazed ceramics of Song-dynasty China. Both of these Japanese-made pieces are close in shape to the Chinese meiping vase, with rounded shoulders and a short, narrow neck. While the dripping and patchiness of the glaze on both bottles would have been less desirable to a Chinese audience, Japanese collectors treasured and saved these pieces, suggesting that Japanese connoisseurs appreciated the beauty of uneven surfaces, even in the thirteenth century.