Glossy Chinese Oil Pots

About the Glossy Chinese Oil Pots

Glazed oil jars were the standard storage vessel across rural China for cooking oil, rice wine and preserved vegetables. The body was thrown or coil-built in unrefined local clay, then dipped in a dark ash glaze that ran and pooled as it fired. The result is a surface that is glossy, almost black in shadow, and shot through with brown where the glaze thinned over the shoulder.

The silhouette is what makes them work in a contemporary room: a wide belly, a short neck and an abrupt shoulder, so the eye reads a single strong curve from any angle. They have real presence at floor level beside a fireplace or at the end of a run of cabinets, and they take a single tall branch better than any vase. Left empty they lose nothing.

The glaze is hard and needs no care beyond dusting. The unglazed foot ring is porous, so use a mat under it on wood, and do not fill them with water — the interiors were sealed for oil, not for standing liquid, and after this long you cannot count on that seal. Move them with both hands under the belly rather than by the neck.

Oil jars are heavy and awkward and we crate them individually. Sizes and glaze patterns vary considerably, so the photographs are always of the actual piece in stock. If you are matching one to a particular spot, send us the dimensions you have to work with and we will tell you honestly whether what we have will sit right there.