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Lot Essay
This wine drinking vessel is related to two other bronze examples raised on tripod supports, both dated to the Warring States period, but with inlaid brocade-like decoration, and a loop handle. See Wan-go Weng, The Palace Museum: Peking, Beijing, 1982, p. 140, pl. 72, and A. Eggebrecht, et al., China eine Wiege der Weltkultur, Mainz, 1994, p. 166.
Although the type of scroll decoration on this cup is Warring States in style, the broader shape and arrangement of the decoration in bands set between plain borders may be imitating painted lacquer wine vessels, such as those illustrated in the catalogue, Lacquerware from the Warring States to the Han Periods Excavated in Hubei Province, Hubei Provincial Museum and Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994, nos. 49, 54, 65, and 68 A, B and C. No. 54 still retains its metal base raised on three cabriole legs, which is imitated on the present cup. None of the painted decoration on these cups is as complex or dense as on this cup. They all have a small loop handle, which here has been replaced by a raptor head grasping a 'jewel' in its beak, a feature seen on a vessel recovered from a large late 4th century BC tomb at Baoshan, Jingmen Xian, northern Hebei province, illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji - Eastern Zhou, vol. 10, part 4, Beijing, 1998, p. 61, no. 61. With its various features the present cup is a fascinating combination of stylistic influences.
Although the type of scroll decoration on this cup is Warring States in style, the broader shape and arrangement of the decoration in bands set between plain borders may be imitating painted lacquer wine vessels, such as those illustrated in the catalogue, Lacquerware from the Warring States to the Han Periods Excavated in Hubei Province, Hubei Provincial Museum and Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994, nos. 49, 54, 65, and 68 A, B and C. No. 54 still retains its metal base raised on three cabriole legs, which is imitated on the present cup. None of the painted decoration on these cups is as complex or dense as on this cup. They all have a small loop handle, which here has been replaced by a raptor head grasping a 'jewel' in its beak, a feature seen on a vessel recovered from a large late 4th century BC tomb at Baoshan, Jingmen Xian, northern Hebei province, illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji - Eastern Zhou, vol. 10, part 4, Beijing, 1998, p. 61, no. 61. With its various features the present cup is a fascinating combination of stylistic influences.