A Chinese cizhou inverted baluster vase

A Chinese cizhou inverted baluster vase, painted in varying shades of brown with a wide band containing a stylized bird, a figure and trailing flowers and foliage, Yuan dynasty 1260-1368, extensive body cracks, 33.5cm. Provenance: Ernest Ohly Collection. A jar of this very unusual shape decorated with lozenge shaped panels of scholars, was excavated in 1976 from a tomb in Yuncheng county, Shandong province, and is illustrated in Wenwu, 1988:6, pl. 7, no. 6. Compare, also, the jar in the Tokyo National Museum illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 78, no. 322 and another in the Freer Gallery of Art illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, Tokyo, 1981, vol. 9, No.86.