MID-TO LATE WARRING STATES PERIOD, MID-4TH CENTURY-221 BC

This beaker is decorated on the tapering body with three bands of intertwined S-shaped dragons. The convex cover is cast with three loop rings. The shape of this beaker is quite unusual and vessels of this type are extremely rare. Two similar vessels with the addition of two ring handles on the body have been found in Zangjiazhuang in Zhucheng, Shandong Province (see Qi Wentao, “Gaishu jinnian lai Shandong chutu de Shang Zhou qingtongqi,” Wenwu 1972, no. 5, p. 14 and Xiqing gujian (vol. 21). The Shandong examples belong to the Qi State of the mid-Warring states period.

The intertwined dragons on the present beaker are similar to those found on a ding from a Warring States burial (M6:1) at Miaozhuang, Pingliang, Gansu Province (Gansu Sheng Bowuguan and Wei Huaiheng, “Gansu Pingliang Miaozhuang de liangzuo Zhanguo mu,” Kaogu yu wenwu, 1982, no. 5, p. 27), and two ding from the burials of the mid-late Warring States period at Ta’erpo, Xianyang, Shaanxi Province (Xianyang Shi Bowuguan, “Shaanxi Xianyang Ta’erpo chutu de tongqi,” Wenwu 1975, no. 6, p. 69). Although these ding were excavated from Qin State burials, they were likely originally made in the Jin or Eastern Zhou but moved by the Qin raiders (see Zhu Fenghan, Gudai Zhengguo qingtongqi [Ancient Chinese Bronzes], Tianjin, 1995, ch. 13, sec. 3, no. 5). Given its similar decoration, the present beaker was likely also made in the Jin or Eastern Zhou and can be dated to the mid-late Warring States period.