Page 106 - Chinese and Asian Ceramics from an Indonesian Collection

Chapter 5. Unglazed, Slipped & Painted Wares in the Musi River

Figure 166. Jar, finely potted, impressed pattern of oval seed in
pod? around body and degraded reddish brown slip,
height 6.6 cm, probably central east coast Peninsula
Thailand. Probably mid-2nd millennium, from the
Musi River. Catalogue No. K1016.

Lower Central Thailand pottery
The Singburi ware from the Mae Nam Noi kilns
(sometimes referred to as Wat Phra Prang) at Ban Rachan
District, Singburi Province, lower Central Thailand, was
exported in the 15th to 18th centuries, including to Figure 167. Kendi, fine fabric, height 24 cm, east coast Peninsula
Thailand, Satingpra region, C10–C14, from the
Phatthalung, southern Thailand (Phinsakul et al. 2016, Musi River, Sungai Guci site. Catalogue No. K2084.
Piyakul 2014–2015). These wares were mostly ovoid heavily
potted glazed storage jars which had thick horizontal lugs
set between two bands of incised lines and a body that
narrows at the neck to a relatively small mouth with an
everted rolled lip and a foot with a flat base (see Chapter
on Storage Vessels page 113 ). And bottles and jars with
incised horizontal parallel lines around the shoulder,
including one with two handles. Unglazed pottery in the
Musi from the Mae Nam Noi kilns included relatively
narrow necked bottles, including numbers K2048,
K2399 and K2657–9, some with a blue-grey slip and one
with a flattened upper rim to receive a stopper (Figure
161); relatively broader necked jars with everted upper
rims, including K1104, K1139, K1615, K1618 and K2545
(Figure 162); bowls with a pinkish grey body, including
K2396, K2404, K2511 (Figure 163); and mortars (K1918
& K2315). Another major product from Singburi was
distinctive unglazed grey to black fabric kendis with an
exaggerated mammiform spout. Two from the Musi were
slightly decorated around the upper neck with incised
patterns, one had a wide horizontal upper rim and the
other, a distal basined neck (Figure 164). Two others had
a vertically fluted body (Figure 165). These four Singburi
kendis were from the Batu Ampar site. The long fluted
neck of two other such kendis (K1582 & K2180) were
found at the Sungai Rebo site. Harper (2016) stated that
the fluted form was common on the Koh Si Chang One
wreck, which sank in the Gulf of Thailand sometime in Figure 168. Kendi, fine fabric, height 23.5 cm, east coast
the late-16th–early-17th century. She wrote that some Peninsula Thailand, Satingpra region, C10–C14,
experts consider these fluted kendis were made in from the Musi River, Pusri site. Catalogue No.
southern Thailand. K2232.

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