An Unusual Bronze Food Vessel and Cover, Dui

EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY

Details

An Unusual Bronze Food Vessel and Cover, Dui
Eastern Zhou Dynasty
The bulbous vessel and cover cast as mirror images of each other so that the cover when inverted can be used as a bowl, both flat-cast with two different bands of a repeating pattern of intertwined serpents on a granular ground, a slightly recessed band at the rims also decorated, as are the faceted loop handles, the spreading ring surmounting the cover centered by a flowerhead encircled by three further serpents with split and entwined bodies, light encrustation inside and out
8in. (20.3cm.) high

Lot Essay

Compare the dui of similar rare form and slightly smaller size (6¼in. high) with bands of different interlocked dragon decoration in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, illustrated by G.W. Weber, Jr., The Ornaments of Late Chou Bronzes, Rutgers University, 1973, pp. 184-185, pl. 32.

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