EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 10TH-9TH CENTURY BC

The inscriptions cast on the inside of the cover and the base of the vessel read Yuan zuo jia (Yuan made (this) vessel).

The present you belongs to a group of vessels from the early Western Zhou period that are generally left undecorated. A you of similar proportions and decoration is illustrated by R.W. Bagley, in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington, D.C., 1990, fig. 72.3, which is dated to the early Western Zhou period.