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Stem Vase with Incised and Painted Design

1000–300 BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 244
This elegant stem cup was assembled in two pieces: a short bulbous cup with a full rim, and a longer handle or "stem" with a splayed foot. Geometric patterns, both curvilinear forms and more structured triangles and rectangles, are delicately incised on the cup and at the lower part of the stem, and painted with red and buff slips.

Cups such as this example, which combine painted and incised decoration, are assigned to the middle phase at Ban Chiang and related sites. Several cups in this shape are known; however, no comparable pieces have been scientifically excavated at the site. They may represent a cognate tradition centered on a comparable site on the Khorat Plateau or elsewhere in mainland Southeast Asia. Such ceramics were most likely among the luxury goods traded and exchanged as gifts between cultures in Southeast Asia that had long been linked to each other via rivers and other waterways.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Stem Vase with Incised and Painted Design
  • Period: Middle period
  • Date: 1000–300 BCE
  • Culture: Thailand (Ban Chiang culture)
  • Medium: Earthenware with buff slip and red oxide decoration
  • Dimensions: H. 9 1/2 (24.1 cm); W. 6 7/8 in. (17.4 cm)
  • Classification: Ceramics
  • Credit Line: Gift of Cynthia Hazen Polsky, 1987
  • Object Number: 1987.424.4.2
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

More Artwork

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Stem Cup, Terracotta with buff slip and red oxide decoration, Thailand
Stem Cup
Thailand
ca. 1500–1250 BCE
Vessel with Bulbous Body, Earthenware with buff slip and incised red oxide decoration, Thailand
Vessel with Bulbous Body
Thailand
ca. 1000–300 BCE
Female Dancer, Earthenware with slip and pigment, China
Female Dancer
China
2nd century BCE
Goddess who bestows riches, probably Sri Lakshmi, Molded terracotta, India, Chandraketugarh, West Bengal
Goddess who bestows riches, probably Sri Lakshmi
India, Chandraketugarh, West Bengal
1st century BCE
Cocoon-Shaped Vessel , Earthenware with incised decoration and burnishing, China

Cocoon-Shaped Vessel

China
2nd–early 1st century BCE

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