Stoneware Teapot - 20.5 cm - Rare teapot with a long spout.

Rare long-beaked pouring vessel
Kilns of Si Satchanalai
Sukhothai period, 14th–16th centuries
Thailand
Stoneware with iron-oxide painted decoration under a clear glaze
Dimensions: Height 20.5 cm × 16 cm × 12.5 cm

A rare Sawankhalok stoneware pouring vessel with a generously modeled piriform body, resting on a ring foot, extended laterally by a long, strongly raised tubular spout. The narrow neck expands into a substantial discoidal collar surrounding the upper opening. This particularly sculptural architecture, where the rising curve of the spout responds to the elongation of the neck, gives the piece a silhouette that is both dynamic and monumental despite its modest size.

The surface is covered with a pale glaze, today deeply altered by time, revealing a particularly dense network of cracks and iridescence. Under it remains an iron-oxide-painted decoration, whose originally dark tone now oscillates between gray-black and brown. This combination of a ferruginous decoration under a clear glaze is one of the major characteristics of Sawankhalok production.

The decoration is organized in horizontal registers following the vase’s construction. Concentric lines emphasize the lower part of the body while the long spout is traversed by dark longitudinal bands. The large upper collar bears a remarkable radiating motif of stylized petals or leaves arranged around the central opening. This geometric-and-vegetal vocabulary finds direct parallels in Sawankhalok ceramics of the 15th–16th centuries, whose collars are frequently adorned with lotus petals and the various parts of the vase are structured by linear borders.

The Sawankhalok production, developed around Si Satchanalai in the present-day province of Sukhothai, was one of Southeast Asia’s great ceramic centers. Particularly flourishing in the 15th and 16th centuries, it sustained a wide maritime trade, and its productions have been found across a large part of the Southeast Asian archipelago.

The form of this piece warrants particular attention. The Sawankhalok workshops produced several variants of pouring vessels and kendi, but examples with a piriform body, long tubular raised spout, and broad upper collar, such as this, are noticeably less common than bowls, boxes, bottles, and other vessels that formed the core of production. The shaped forms of kendi and pouring vessels are also explicitly described as being much rarer in the production of these furnaces.

Condition: Very good overall for its age. Some chips and small cracks. Glaze alteration, efflorescence, occasional losses of decoration, and the network of cracks give the surface an archaeologically expressive texture, while keeping the original decorative organization legible. Small crack (glaze chip) at the neck.

Provenance: Kanaka The Collection, Portugal
Sent with UPS and insured