A RARE BRONZE DOU AND COVER

Details

A RARE BRONZE DOU AND COVER
EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY

The globular body with pair of ring handles, well cast with a broad, densely patterned band of small interlocking scrolls terminating in stylized bird heads with sharply curved beaks, repeated in a narrower band below as well as on the domed cover in two further bands encircling the spreading knop finial cast on top with a continuous band of interlocking snakes on a granular ground surrounding two concentric bands of keyfret in the recessed center, the whole raised on a pedestal foot cast with a band of dissolved dragons on a leiwen ground, the patina of mottled grayish green with malachite and azurite encrustation on the interior, bowl cracked and restored where it meets the pedestal base--7 7/8 in. (20 cm.) high

Lot Essay

The dou, or stemmed bowl, known from Neolithic times as a pottery vessel, makes its appearance as a bronze shape in the Zhou period. The small curling and interlocking elements of the ornament on this example place it in approximately the sixth century B.C. A similar covered dou is in the collection of the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, illustrated in The Fifteenth Anniversary Catalogue, Tokyo, 1981, no. 1078. Compare also the dou from the Sackler Collection, illustrated by Weber, The Ornaments of Late Chou Bronzes, p. 132, pl. 16 and another from the Pillsbury Collection, Minneapolis Institute of Art, also illustrated by Weber, p. 132, pl. 17

Slightly later, this type of vessel was decorated with inlaid patterns in copper, gold and silver, or malachite, the smooth contours lending themselves well to rich surface ornament. Refer, Wen Fong, ed., The Great Bronze Age of China, New York, 1980, nos. 70 and 74 and Gems of China's Cultural Relics, Beijing, 1990, no. 64