Decorated eared cup

Description

This funerary object is one of only six surviving Warring States earthenware vessels decorated all over with low-fired lead-barium glazes called "glass paste." This was the earliest low-fired glaze technique used in China, and it may be related to early Chinese glass production. The blue glaze is a very early example of "Chinese blue" or "Han blue"—a synthetic mineral colorant that was used only from about the fourth to the third century b.c. in China and not used elsewhere until much later.