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Pair of Leather Bag-Shaped Flasks with Covers
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Flasks like these derive their shapes from leather bags; even the edges are finely rouletted to resemble the seams of sewn leather. These were used by the nomadic Khitan people who established the Liao kingdom in Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, and North China. Such wares represented the Liao adoption of the Tang Chinese ceramic tradition, and yet they expressed ethnic identity and new innovations resulted from the cultural borrowing.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit linePair of Leather Bag-Shaped Flasks with Covers, 916–1125. Northeast China, Liao dynasty (916-1125). Earthenware with green glaze; part 1: 24.5 x 16.5 x 16 cm (9 5/8 x 6 1/2 x 6 5/16 in.); part 2: 23.5 x 17.5 x 13.8 cm (9 1/4 x 6 7/8 x 5 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Donna and James Reid, 2012.448
