A Rare Bronze Cocoon-Form Vessel, Hu

WARRING STATES PERIOD (475-221 BC)

Details

A Rare Bronze Cocoon-Form Vessel, Hu
Warring States period (475-221 BC)
The rounded sides crisply cast in low relief with wide vertical bands of small, tightly coiled scrolls repeated at each end and separated by plain vertical bands, each side applied with a pair of taotie-mask handles suspending loose rings cast with decorative bands, all below a plain, slightly waisted neck and raised on a plain rectangular foot with rounded corners, with silvery-grey patina and some lapis and malachite encrustation
13in. (33cm.) long, cloth box

Provenance

Acquired in July 1994.

Lot Essay

Although this is a form familiar in painted grey pottery, it is rare to find an example in bronze. The only other published bronze example is that illustrated by Gisèle Croës in her catalogue for an exhibition in Maastricht, March 1997, pp. 48-49. Like the present example the body is cast with bands of small tight hook and volute pattern alternating with plain, narrow bands, but all of the bands are narrower and the body is rounder. Rather than having a pair of taotie-mask and ring handles on each side, a single mask and ring handle is applied at each end of the top of the body, and the neck is of smaller diameter with an upright rim.

According to Ma Cheng Yuan, during the Spring and Autumn period, the hu develops into a vessel with an egg-shaped body and a short contracted neck, and that "this new form was very popular". See Ancient Chinese Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1986, pp. 197 and 198.

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