Bowls & Vases Home & Accessories

Clay, glaze and a little crackle where the kiln cooled. Antique bowls and vases here come from China, India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, West Africa and Central America, in porcelain, lacquer, jade, bronze and carved wood. Chinese porcelain runs from 19th century zun and guan form vases to a Jingdezhen vase dated 1975 and a lidded rice storage bowl from Jiangxi. Lacquered covered bowls come from Shanxi, and a jade bowl from Guangdong.

From Papua New Guinea come Sawos sago bowls from the Sepik and a painted feast bowl from the Tami Islands. A Maya Copador bowl from Honduras is dated to roughly 300 to 900 CE, and an Ibibio medicine bowl from Nigeria has a figural handle. Rajasthani marble and Javanese petrified wood widen the shelf. Put a sago bowl on a coffee table or a crackle vase on a mantel with a single branch. A bowl is the oldest container there is, and still the most useful.