戰國

Both the shape and especially the decoration of this steamer are unusual, and no other vessel with this particular decoration appears to have been published. The upper steamer section is similar in form to that of a steamer in The Art Museum, Princeton University, illustrated by C. Deydier, Les Bronzes Chinois, Paris, 1980, p. 228, no. 81. Like the present steamer it has taotie-mask and ring handles on both sections, but the lower vessel is squat and raised on three truncated conical supports. Other than a raised band encircling each section it is undecorated.