Skip Navigation

Double Chicken-Headed Ewer

Asian Art

Especially during the ninth to eleventh centuries, Chinese connoisseurs prized high-fired green-glazed ceramics and compared their exquisite gray-green glazes to precious jade. Green-glazed ware, know generally as Yue ware but often called "celadon" in the West, was manufactured both for daily use and for burial. The Chicken-Headed Ewer was most likely produced as a burial good, and excavations have revealed comparable early examples in tombs from the fourth century to the seventh. The two spouts on the remarkable, tall Chicken-Headed Ewer are not functional, further identifying it as a burial object.

MEDIUM Yue ware, stoneware, glaze
  • Place Made: China
  • DATES 581-618 C.E.
    DYNASTY Sui Dynasty
    PERIOD Southern Dynasties
    DIMENSIONS 14 3/8 x 8 in. (36.5 x 20.3 cm) Diameter of mouth: 4 7/8 in. (12.4 cm)  (show scale)
    COLLECTIONS Asian Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 1996.26.2
    CREDIT LINE Gift of Dr. and Mrs. George J. Fan
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Double Chicken-Headed Ewer, 581-618 C.E. Yue ware, stoneware, glaze, 14 3/8 x 8 in. (36.5 x 20.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. George J. Fan, 1996.26.2. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1996.26.2_SL1.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 1996.26.2_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
    You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.