EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, LATE 6TH-EARLY 5TH CENTURY BC

A similar hu with cover is illustrated by J. So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, 1995, vol. III, no. 44, where the author, p. 257, describes how the motifs "were first cast in copper, then inserted into the mold and held in place with spacers". This technique was more effective in keeping the copper decoration in place than the more conventional method of hammering the copper into cast or incised depressions. Other similarly decorated hu are in museum collections, including The Avery Brundage Collection, The Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; the Buckingham Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago; the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; and the Fujii Yurinkan Museum, Kyoto, where it is registered as an Important Art Object by the Japanese government. Another hu with cover was also included in the exhibition Chinese Archaic Bronzes, Sculpture and Works of Art, J.J. Lally & Co., New York, June 1992, no. 24.