WARRING STATES PERIOD (475-221 BC)

This ding is similar in type to one in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art discussed by P. Meyers, 'The Lidow Ding: A Technical Study', Chinese Bronzes: Selected Articles from Orientations 1983-2000, June 2000, pp. 369-374. The author notes that the Lidow ding, which he dates circa 425-400 BC, is most likely one of a set of graduated vessels, which are in four different collections: the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; the Shanghai Museum; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; and one formerly in the Ferris Luboshez Collection. Based on the decoration he also concludes that these bronzes were made at the foundry at Houma, southern Shanxi province, discovered in 1955-56, where tens of thousands of clay models and mold fragments were found. Although the decoration on the present example is similar but not identical to the aforementioned, the style of casting and the style of the decoration most likely assign it also to the Houma foundry.