A RARE PAIR OF BRONZE WINE VESSELS, HU

Details

A RARE PAIR OF BRONZE WINE VESSELS, HU
SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD (770-476 BC)

Each with a compressed pear-shaped body, very crisply cast with four horizontal registers of scroll decoration, the wide lower band with large 'C','G' and 'S'-patterns against a triangular leiwen ground, the next register up with stylised double-headed dragons, the section above similarly decorated with single dragons, and the waisted neck with rounded lappets repeating the decoration on the main band, and flanked with a pair of handles formed with two mythical animals, suspending loose flattened rings, all raised on spreading foot cast with overlapping U-shaped designs, the surface with a smooth grey-green patina, one hu set with a crown of eight pierced everted lappets
21 1/4 in. (54 cm.) high (2)

Lot Essay

Acquired by the present owner in 1988.

This type of massive hu with the unusual triangular leiwen and such finely cast mask handles, is extremely rare. Compare a much smaller and more coarsely cast example of related type in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo Wenwu Jinghua Saquan, Qingtong Juan, 1994, no. 0700, from the late Spring and Autumn period.

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