An Unusual Bronze Pear-Shaped Jar, Hu

MIDDLE WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 10TH-9TH CENTURY BC

細節

An Unusual Bronze Pear-Shaped Jar, Hu
Middle Western Zhou dynasty, 10th-9th century BC
The sides flat-cast with four rows of large fish scale or feather pattern with combed borders, below two pairs of long-tailed birds confronted on a leiwen band between a pair of lug handles flanking the base of the neck, the whole raised on a spreading pedestal foot pierced on two sides with a circular aperture, with azurite and malachite encrustation and mottling
16¼in. (41.3cm.) high

拍品專文

A very similar bronze hu, with cover, found in Baijia, Fufeng, Shaanxi province, 1975, and now in the Fufeng County Museum, is illustrated in Zhonguo meishu quanji; gongyi meishu, bian 4; qingtongqi (1), (The Great Treasury of Chinese Fine Arts; Arts and Crafts, vol.4; Bronzes (1)), Beijing, 1987, p. 192, no. 213, where the pattern on the body is described as fish scales, as other jars of this type have fish scale design, and jars were later made in the shape of fish. It is possible, however, that the pattern may be feathers, which would relate to the birds on the neck. The pattern on the present jar and the published jar is identical.

See, also, the related hu, of more slender form with a band of confronted birds on the neck between the lug handles and rows of overlapping feather or scale pattern of smaller size covering the body, in the collection of the Shanghai Museum, included in the exhibition, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1 February-3 April 1983, no. 28. Like the present hu it is dated to the middle Western Zhou period.