Period: Western Zhou (1046-771 B.C)
Measurements: H.6.3 cm, Dia. 16.2 cm, Foot Dia. 8.6 cm
Provenance: Unearthed at Xin village of Hebi in Henan, 1982

Being a primitive prototype of the ceramic vessel, it features a straight lip and flat rim, shallow sides, ring foot, and coated by green glaze inside and outside. Irregular linear patterns were carved on the exterior, but the interior plain. The shape of the vessel is simple but graceful. Dou was a vessel for containing food, the primitive glazed Dou was normally an important ritual vessel.

The then primitive glazed vessel had gained the three basic elements which made up of the porcelain: the first, the raw material must be porcelain clay (kaolin); the second, the surface was covered by the vitreous glaze which was fired at high temperature, and the glaze was tightly attached to the body, preventing from peeling off; the third, being fired at the temperature in the range of 1000 to 1200℃, which led to dense and hard texture. At the initial and developing stage in the history of ceramics, the primitive porcelain normally had the unpurified texture and uneven glaze coatings. In the archaeological circle of China, the archaeologically found porcelains dating from Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn periods were named to be “primitive porcelains” or “primitive green porcelains”.