Chicken shaped pot National Museum of Vietnamese History

[calder]

My question is this shape typical of Thailand Pottery.
Have seen similar form in french pottery.
I was thinking of buying one advertised as European.

[calder]

More pics.

[Stan]

Hi Calder, looks like stone ware and it looks old but we will need Peters expertise on this.

[calder]

Thank you Stan.
Its certainly a close match to one in the National Museum.
Whether their exhibit is correct I don't Know.
It has some kind of symbol on it.
Perhaps some kind of script?

[peterp]

Not Chinese, neither shape not decoration. The museum piece posted indeed seems to be of the same type. But the characters in the top two pictures, if they are characters, do look neither European nor any other language I know in the Far East. It may not be characters at all, though. Do they not state the possible origin of this item on the museum site.

You might look into the possibility that it is from the era of Srivijaya, judging by the dating given. But that may not be its origin, because Srivijaya was a thalassocratic empire spanning several of todays countries in SE Asia, and they controlled trade.
Chinese maritime trade was still limited or even non-existent at that time. Most wares would have been shipped from port to port rather than on long trading routes like hundreds of years later.