A painted black pottery tripod jar, Xiajiadan lower culture, early 2nd millennium B.C. 夏家店下層文化 彩陶鬲

Ronald W. Longsdorf, The Pottery Age: An Appreciation of Neolithic Ceramics from China, Circa 7000 BC - Circa 1000 BC, Hong Kong, 2020, pl. 91.

Ronald W. Longsdorf, 《陶誌：中國新石器時代陶器 約西元前7000年 – 前1000年》，香港，2020年，圖版91

Painted pottery vessels from the Xiajiadian lower culture are known but the current tripod jar is extremely rare in that there is no margin between the different colours.

See, for example, a painted pottery jar from the Xiajiadian culture, also from the collection of Ronald W. Longsdorf, sold in these rooms, 25th May 2022, lot 829, where the painted scrolled designs appear to be outlined in grey. Such grey 'outlines' are in fact the unpainted grey body between the different colours, and it has been suggested that they are incorporated to ensure that the colours would not merge with one another. 

That the current jar is painted with different colours contrasting with each other seamlessly without the grey margins makes it a very rare and exceptional example and one may even suggest that it would have required of the potter an even higher level of precision and control of the pigments.