Lot 1966
1966
VARIOUS PROPERTIES
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, below a register of stylised double-headed dragons, 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 a splayed foot cast with overlapping U-shaped designs, the surface with a smooth grey-green patina, one hu set with a crown of eight openwork everted lappets
24 5/8 in. (62.5 cm.) and 21 1/4 in. (54 cm.) high (2)
Provenance
Sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 7 July 2003 (catalogue dated 28 April 2003), lot 621, previously acquired in 1988

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Carrie Li
Carrie Li

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Lot Essay

This type of massive wine vessel, hu, with the unusual triangular leiwen and such finely cast mask handle is extremely rare. Compare a related similarly cast vessel, but smaller in size (32.1 cm high) and bearing a commemorative inscription of 143 characters, in the Shanghai Museum collection, illustrated in Zhongguo Wenwu Jinghua Dacidian, Qingtong Juan, Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 0700, dated to the late Spring and Autumn period.

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