A Rare Chinese Cizhou Russet-Decorated Black-Glazed JarNorthern Song-Jin Dynasty, 12th centuryThe globular black-glazed body with bluish undertones and two strap-ribbed handles is divided into six sections, each section formed by four russet ribs. They run from the top of the jar just below the start of the neck down to where the black-glaze ends above the splayed foot and where a narrow thin glaze of olive-caramel color covers the jar and meets the top of the foot. Each of the six sections has a similar russet partial elliptical drawing with each end of the open elliptical drawing looping back up onto itself in a free form flowing style. Within each section above the three molded lines that run around the circumference of the upper one third of the body are additional russet splashes, one splash in four of the sections and two splashes in each of the two remaining sections. Each of the strap-ribbed handles have four russet ribs from where the handles are attached to the neck of the jar to where they are attached to the body, with additional russet lines circling the body. The splayed foot, applied with the same black glaze as the body, has a circle of russet through its middle. The bottom of the foot is unglazed showing the pale buff stoneware body, but the inside of the foot and is washed in a russet glaze. Height 7 1/2 inches. Provenance:Jade Dragon; Ann Arbor, Michigan Note:A jar sold at Christies, identified as "A Rare Cizhou Russet-Decorated Black-Glazed Jar" with no vertical sections created by russet ribs but with twelve russet-formed five petal flowers on its sides, was discussed at length as to its rarity and commanded a high realized price. See, Christies, New York, 3 March 2003, lot 293 (Realized price USD 138,000). The lot offered here combines two forms of russet ribs and russet florals as well as free-form flowing elliptical decorations. They are placed specifically within each section together with russet splashes. Christies' describes, infra, how five petal russet flowers came to be used on these wares in the 12th Century and were then utilized as motifs during the Yuan Dynasty as the artists of that period began to be more creative. That creativity is seen on the lot offered here in the use of the free-form elliptical decorations that make this piece so rare.C Property from the Collection of Steven J. Harvis