Chinese Storage Vessel / Planter

A mustard glaze that stops short of the foot, as though it lost interest.

Glazed pottery from Guangdong Province, China, this storage vessel or planter dates to the early 20th century. Southern Chinese kilns made jars at this scale for the plain work of keeping food and water, and such pots traveled widely as containers in their own right. The glaze is a warm yellow-brown, smooth across the shoulder and giving out in pale, soft drips near the bottom. A wide rim of bare pinkish clay rolls around the top. The interior carries the same glaze. Thirty-two inches high and forty-two across.

Whatever it once stored, it has outlasted the need.