Chinese Silkworm Cocoon Form Hu Vessel

A silkworm's cocoon, scaled up and turned into a jar, for reasons that seemed sound in the Han.

This silkworm cocoon form hu vessel comes from China and dates to the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), the record placing it in the Western Han. It is made of earthenware. Vessels of this distinctive shape are known largely from tombs of the period, and are generally thought to have been made as burial goods. Grey and smoky, the swollen body is ribbed with bands of incised lines. A narrow neck flares into a wide lip above a ringed foot. Eleven and a half inches high.

Two thousand years on, it still holds its shape better than most of us.