1. 1. Model of a cooking stove
Gallery 15, ground floor

The dark green glazed model of a stove in the case to the right of the Object of the Month is also a burial model. It was made several centuries before the figures, during the Han (206 BC - AD 220) dynasty. The low-fired lead glaze has been coloured with copper to give a rich green colour.

2. Animals in pens, figures and models of cooking stoves
Gallery 15, ground floor

The small models of animals in pens, figures and cooking stoves in the case behind the Object of the Month were made in east China in the third and fourth centuries AD. They were fired at high temperature in a reducing atmosphere (without oxygen), and in these conditions the iron in the glaze gives a pale greyish-green colour. They were produced at the Yue kilns on the northern coast of Zhejiang province; in the Tang dynasty, Yue wares were the most highly prized of all Chinese ceramics (see adjacent bay).

3. Large Tomb figures
Gallery 15, ground floor

The large tomb figures to the left of the Object of the Month were made at the same period, and also for burial. The guardian figures were included to protect both the tomb and the tomb occupant.