A red pottery boot-form vessel Majiayao culture, Machang phase to Qijia culture, late 3rd to early 2nd millennium B.C 馬家窰文化 馬廠類型至齊家文化 紅陶靴形壺

Ronald W. Longsdorf, The Pottery Age: An Appreciation of Neolithic Ceramics from China, Circa 7000 BC - Circa 1000 BC, Hong Kong, 2020, pl. 23.

Ronald W. Longsdorf, 《陶誌：中國新石器時代陶器 約公元前7000年 – 前1000年》，香港，2020年，圖版23

The present vessel, modelled after a low boot, is also known as a 'nesting bird' form as related forms were also found in pottery jars from the Banshan phase. There are, however, similar vessels sculpted with toes and hence attributed directly to the form of a human foot. See a closely related example dated to Majiayao culture, Machang phase, exhibited in An Exhibition of Prehistorical Painted Pottery, National Museum of History, Taipei, 1996, cat. no. 219, where the ankle part of the boot was painted with lines to represent loose folds of the sock, in opposed to modelled grooves as in the present piece. 

本壺形仿鞋靴，亦似鳥形，半坡遺址，曾出土陶罐例。亦有作例，形狀如人足。比較馬家窰文化馬廠型時期作例，曾展於《原生文明 - 館藏史前彩陶特展》，台北歷史博物館，台北，1996年，編號219，脚跟處繪如襪之綫條，與本壺刻紋相異。