French Yellow Glazed Tian, 20th Century

Wheel-thrown terracotta tian, the shallow flaring bowl form used across Provence for mixing, salting, and serving. Two pinched lug handles applied at the rim, with a pulled pouring lip opposite.

The interior and rim carry a honey-yellow lead glaze that stops partway down the outside and runs in thick drips over the bare clay. Look at the drip edges and you can see a white line between the yellow and the red body. That's a slip, a thin coat of pale clay brushed on before glazing, and it's the reason the yellow reads warm and bright instead of muddy brown. Yellow glaze over red terracotta alone goes dull, so the slip was doing real work.

Thrown slightly out of round with visible wheel lines inside and out. Unglazed foot and lower body, showing the raw red clay.

Dimensions
14" x 12" x 5.5"

Condition
Sold as found.

Glaze losses and small nicks along the rim and at both handles. Fine crazing throughout the glazed surface. Kiln grit and scattered clay flecks on the unglazed foot. Glaze drips and the uneven glaze line are original to the making, not damage.