Chinese Wine Storage Vessel

A basket’s pattern, pressed into clay and fired to ember colors.

This wine storage vessel was made in pottery in Shanxi Province, China, in the early 19th century. Jars like it were commonly used for storing wine and other liquids in the household. A broad, round body is covered in impressed diagonal basket-weave marks, and a short collar rises to a small rim. The surface runs from smoky grey at the shoulder to rust-red toward the base, where the fire reached it.

About 20 inches tall and 18 wide. It has the color of a banked fire.