Circa Early to Mid 18th Century Chinese Brown Speckle Glaze Stoneware Wine Jug

Early to mid-18th Century Chinese brown speckle glaze stoneware wine jugs were likely utilitarian vessels used for storing or serving rice wine or other spirits. These jugs would have been made from stoneware, a durable and non-translucent type of pottery fired at temperatures between 1100 and 1250°C. The "brown speckle" glaze suggests a darker, often variegated, brown glaze with speckles, possibly created by the presence of iron in the clay reacting with the heat of the salt-glazing process, according to the University of Wisconsin Pressbooks. Some sources mention a brown washed or brown dressed rim applied to Chinese blue and white underglaze decorated vessels in the 17th and 18th centuries, but this is distinct from the overall brown glaze of the stoneware jugs described.