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Lot Essay
The six-character inscription, which is placed upside down inside the neck of the vessel, may be read, 'the Prince of Qin had this hu cast'.
During the late Western Zhou period, new forms and decorative motifs, such as the interlaced bifurcated serpents and the undulating wave band on this vessel, began to appear. Of the published hu cast with these designs the most similar, both in shape and decoration, are the pair in the Buckingham Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, illustrated by C. Mackenzie, "Adaptation and Invention: Chinese Bronzes of the Eastern Zhou and Han Periods", Chinese Bronzes: Selected Articles from Orientations 1983-2000, p. 159, fig. 1. The small coiled horns of the animal masks on the handles are also quite similar, unlike the horned dragon masks seen on other hu with this design, exemplified by the Song hu illustrated by W. C. Fong, J.C.Y. Watt et al., Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996, p. 79, pl. 42.
During the late Western Zhou period, new forms and decorative motifs, such as the interlaced bifurcated serpents and the undulating wave band on this vessel, began to appear. Of the published hu cast with these designs the most similar, both in shape and decoration, are the pair in the Buckingham Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, illustrated by C. Mackenzie, "Adaptation and Invention: Chinese Bronzes of the Eastern Zhou and Han Periods", Chinese Bronzes: Selected Articles from Orientations 1983-2000, p. 159, fig. 1. The small coiled horns of the animal masks on the handles are also quite similar, unlike the horned dragon masks seen on other hu with this design, exemplified by the Song hu illustrated by W. C. Fong, J.C.Y. Watt et al., Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996, p. 79, pl. 42.