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Lot Essay
According to Jenny So in Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1995, pp. 179-80, the origins of the dou shape can be traced back to shallow ceramic tazza of the Longshan culture in the late Neolithic period. The ceramic form continued to be used throughout the Shang and Zhou periods, but in the Western Zhou period attempts were made to give the modest ceramic form a more ornamental appearance by fashioning it from lacquer over a wood core or casting it in bronze. Early in the Eastern Zhou period the dou shape acquired a lid, and by the sixth century BC it had acquired lug handles on the bowl.
A bronze dou (Fig. 1) virtually identical to the present vessel, of approximately the same size (19.5 cm. high) is in the Baoji County Museum and illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji - 5 - Xi Zhou (1), Beijing, 1997, p. 71, no. 75, where it is dated middle Western Zhou. Unlike the present vessel, the Baoji dou bears a ten-character inscription on the interior of the bowl which states that the vessel had been made by Zhou Sheng for his ancestors. Both the present dou and the Baoji example feature raised whorl medallions on the exterior of the bowl and a bold scale or feather pattern that entered the repertory of Western Zhou bronze designs in the 9th-8th century BC, as evidenced by several vessels of similar date cast with this pattern illustrated by J. So, ibid., pp. 222-25, no. 36 and figs. 36.1-.5. Hiyashi Minao, in Inshu Jidai Seidoki Monyo no Kenkyu, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1984, p. 55, fig. 7, illustrates a bronze dou that appears to be either the present dou or the Baoji example, amongst eleven other line drawings and photographs of pottery and bronze dou that illustrate the development of the dou shape through the late Western Zhou period. The dou illustrated as fig. 6 is of very similar shape to the present dou and the Baoji example, and is also decorated with raised whorls on the exterior of the bowl, but the tall splayed foot is cast in openwork with an interlaced scroll pattern. The whorl motif decorating the bowls of these three vessels can also be seen on contemporaneous lacquer dou, such as the example with mother-of-pearl inlays from Henan Shan Xian Shangcunling illustrated by J. So, ibid., p. 181, fig. 24.2, and the lacquer dou with ceramic inserts from Henan Luoyang illustrated as a line drawing, ibid., p. 180, fig. 24.1.
Technical Examination Report available upon request.
A bronze dou (Fig. 1) virtually identical to the present vessel, of approximately the same size (19.5 cm. high) is in the Baoji County Museum and illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji - 5 - Xi Zhou (1), Beijing, 1997, p. 71, no. 75, where it is dated middle Western Zhou. Unlike the present vessel, the Baoji dou bears a ten-character inscription on the interior of the bowl which states that the vessel had been made by Zhou Sheng for his ancestors. Both the present dou and the Baoji example feature raised whorl medallions on the exterior of the bowl and a bold scale or feather pattern that entered the repertory of Western Zhou bronze designs in the 9th-8th century BC, as evidenced by several vessels of similar date cast with this pattern illustrated by J. So, ibid., pp. 222-25, no. 36 and figs. 36.1-.5. Hiyashi Minao, in Inshu Jidai Seidoki Monyo no Kenkyu, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1984, p. 55, fig. 7, illustrates a bronze dou that appears to be either the present dou or the Baoji example, amongst eleven other line drawings and photographs of pottery and bronze dou that illustrate the development of the dou shape through the late Western Zhou period. The dou illustrated as fig. 6 is of very similar shape to the present dou and the Baoji example, and is also decorated with raised whorls on the exterior of the bowl, but the tall splayed foot is cast in openwork with an interlaced scroll pattern. The whorl motif decorating the bowls of these three vessels can also be seen on contemporaneous lacquer dou, such as the example with mother-of-pearl inlays from Henan Shan Xian Shangcunling illustrated by J. So, ibid., p. 181, fig. 24.2, and the lacquer dou with ceramic inserts from Henan Luoyang illustrated as a line drawing, ibid., p. 180, fig. 24.1.
Technical Examination Report available upon request.