FIVE DYNASTIES (907-960)

Bird-form vessels were used as ladles for wine for ritual purposes during the Warring States. The Yue kilns revived this form in the Five Dynasties period. Compare to a nearly identical bird-form cup also dated to the Five Dynasties in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelain of the Jin and Tang Dynasties, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 256, no. 234, (fig. 1).