A RARE ARCHAIC BRONZE VESSEL, HU

Details

A RARE ARCHAIC BRONZE VESSEL, HU
WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY

Of elongated, tapering ovoid form, the sides with encircling chevron bands alternately cast with key-pattern scrolls and vertical striations, with a small animal mask cast in high relief on two sides below a band on the neck decorated with pairs of birds reserved on leiwen grounds and confronted on a narrow flange as well as separated on the sides by a pair of tubular handles, the similar band encircling the pedestal base pierced with two circular apertures positioned below the handles, the smooth dark gray patina with pale green encrustation
15 5/8in. (39.6cm.) high, lacquer and wood boxes

Provenance

Stephen Junkunc, III

Lot Essay

Other vessels of this form, but variously decorated, have been illustrated. One with a cover and with chevron bands of key scroll in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, was included in the exhibition, Bronzes of the Shang through the T'ang Dynasty, October 19-November 27, 1938, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Catalogue, no. 5. The Boston Museum hu is illustrated again in the Yenching Journal of Chinese Studies, The Bronzes of Shang and Chou, vol. II, 1941, pl. 374 (left), where several others are also illustrated, pl. 334 (middle), decorated with chevron bands; pl. 374 (right) decorated with scale pattern and pl. 375 (right) with plain body and a band of birds interrupted by tubular handles on the neck

Another covered hu of this form, decorated with chevron bands, is illustrated by Minao Hayashi, Studies of Yin and Zhou Bronze Decoration, vol. II, Tokyo, 1986, p. 40, fig. 68 (left)