A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL AND COVER, HU

SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD, 6TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL AND COVER, HU
SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD, 6TH CENTURY BC
The pear-shaped body is raised on a shallow, convex foot scored in imitation of rope, and is encircled mid-body by two bowstring bands interrupted by a lug handle. Two further lug handles projecting from the neck are attached to chain links that are joined by an angular U-shaped handle and pass through loose rings pendent from small loops issuing from bovine masks on the cover, which is centered by a small upright loop. The vessel has a brownish patina with areas of blue-green and azurite encrustation.
10 in. (25.4 cm.) high

Provenance

Sotheby's London, 7 June 1988, lot 8.

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Lot Essay

A similar bronze hu and cover with chain link handle is illustrated by J. So in Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1995, pp. 269-71, no. 47. The foot of the Sackler hu is plain, unlike the foot of the present vessel. This is also true of another similar hu with cover and chain link handle from Shandong Linqu Xian, illustrated p. 271, fig. 47.1.

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