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Lot Essay
This dou is comprised of a high-footed bowl and a convex lid, which can be used as a dish when removed. As recorded in historical texts, dou were used for containing various pickles and minced meat, appearing first in the late Shang period and becoming popular much later in the Spring and Autumn to Warring States period, when the vessel began to be included as part of sets of ritual bronzes. Pottery dou excavated from Warring States burials in Shaogou, Luoyang, contained maize residues, indicating that the function of dou may have changed by this period to contain cereals such as maize or rice, which was also the function of gui and dui vessels at the time.
A dou of similar shape was unearthed from burial M1002 in Shangma, Houma, Shanxi Province (Shanxi Sheng Kaogu Yanjiusuo ed., Shangma mudi [Shangma Cemetery], Beijing, pl. 44). Both the present dou and the Shangma dou are decorated on the lid and the body with a pattern of undulating (panshe). Clay models and molds decorated with panshe patterns have been recovered from bronze foundries in Houma, Shanxi Province (Li Xiating and Liang Ziming, Art of the Houma Foundry, Princeton, 1996, pls. 637–657).
The fine decoration and its arrangement on this dou are also similar to that of a dou illustrated by J. So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, no. 24, where it is dated to the late Spring and Autumn period, 6th century BC. See, also, the very similar dou illustrated by B. Karlgren, A Catalogue of the Chinese Bronzes in the Alfred F. Pillsbury Collection, Minneapolis, 1952, pls. 78 and 79, no. 57.
A dou of similar shape was unearthed from burial M1002 in Shangma, Houma, Shanxi Province (Shanxi Sheng Kaogu Yanjiusuo ed., Shangma mudi [Shangma Cemetery], Beijing, pl. 44). Both the present dou and the Shangma dou are decorated on the lid and the body with a pattern of undulating (panshe). Clay models and molds decorated with panshe patterns have been recovered from bronze foundries in Houma, Shanxi Province (Li Xiating and Liang Ziming, Art of the Houma Foundry, Princeton, 1996, pls. 637–657).
The fine decoration and its arrangement on this dou are also similar to that of a dou illustrated by J. So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, no. 24, where it is dated to the late Spring and Autumn period, 6th century BC. See, also, the very similar dou illustrated by B. Karlgren, A Catalogue of the Chinese Bronzes in the Alfred F. Pillsbury Collection, Minneapolis, 1952, pls. 78 and 79, no. 57.