A Gansu style jar or urn, decorated in the Yangshao phase style with bold circular motifs containing a variety of criss-cross, linear and dot motifs surrounded by circular and curvilinear designs, with a fitted metal stand. Height of urn without stand, 45 cm [2]Provenance: From a Private UK Collection. Purchased from Grosvenor Oriental Porcelain and Works of Art, Portobello Road, London W11 on 8th October 1997. Please note that this lot is undated as there is no Oxford Authentication Ltd. Test for it. However, this genre and its origins along the upper Wei River, and other locations, are discussed with a number of detailed line drawings in Chapter 1, Neolithic Art, by William Watson in 'The Arts of China to AD 900' [Yale University Press/Pelican History of Art]. Professor Watson's work also illustrates photographs of similar vessels, that include: a Banshan urn [dated to 2000BC/Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm], and a Machang urn [dated to Mid-late Second Millenium BC/Museum of Asian Art, San Francisco]. For an example in the British Museum, compare BM 1929.0613.1 from Gansu Province, donated to the Museum by the Stockholm Ostasiatiska Samlingama..