Pair of Mottled Oxblood Hu Vases

This pair of six-sided porcelain vases are cloaked in a dark red glaze known as "sang-de-boeuf" or "oxblood" in the West. The art of creating this particular glaze, which was notoriously difficult to achieve, was lost for centuries but revived in the 18th century, when the imperial court commissioned potters to recover the technique. The wine-red glaze has a beautiful mottled appearance, speckled with flecks of blue and purple. The vases are sculpted in the ancient Hu form, a shape defined by its wide shoulders and flared lip, which over time evolved into the lidded vessel known as a baluster jar or ginger jar.