A LARGE GREEN GLAZED CERAMIC MODEL OF A WATCHTOWER
China, Eastern Han dynasty

The imposing structure consisting of a large bowl with rounded wall forming the base, on which a first floor is laid with large windows and narrow horizontal openings, on the following terracing another room covered by a tiled roof, and finally still another smaller space also protected by a sloping roof, the two upper floors characterized by a complex supporting structure, on the lower bowl - which evidently simulates the presence of a pond - geese and fishes in the round, in the four corners of the terracing on the first floor soldiers with pointed crossbows, the entire outer surface covered with green glaze.

80 cm high

Provenance: Fabrizio Savi collection, acquired from a private collector in Bruxelles between 1995 and 2000.
Although it was already in vogue during the Western Han, the use of burial in tombs of various kinds of architectures became widespread during the Eastern Han dynasty. It was then that the central administration gave considerable autonomy to the large families, who surrounded their large possessions with walls, erecting imposing watchtowers in most dangerous zones, in the overall structure similar to this ceramic model, with the upper floors occupied by armed lookouts. In later centuries, these towers would have inspired the erection of pagodas in Buddhist temples.
Tower models similar to these have been found in a number in the province of Henan (J.-P. Desroches, Compagnons d'éternité, Paris 2001, pp. 67-69, about a watchtower with a similar structure in the Musée national des Arts asiatiques-Guimet of Paris).