Lot Essay
Jenny So in her discussion of the evolution and various types of he, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. III, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1995, p. 409, notes that wine vessels with pouring spouts were produced as early as the Shang period and that the Shang and Western Zhou examples have long handles opposite the spout rather than the bail, or arched handles of the Eastern Zhou period. She also attributes more elaborate decoration on he to southern manufacture, while those being produced in the north were simpler, especially the body, as with the present example
All of the he published are differently decorated, but the one with the most similar wide-mouthed, animal-form spout cast with similar scales and with similarly shaped legs is an excavated example from Shanxi Changzhi Fenshuilin, illustrated by So, op. cit., p. 411, fig. 84.4. On the same page are two further examples, figs. 84.3 and 84.5, which illustrate, along with the Sackler he, no. 84, the possible permutations, including bird-head spouts, slightly domed covers, and, in the case of fig. 84.3 (Collection of The Art Institute of Chicago), legs formed as birds standing on the shoulders of human figures. Two other he, one in the Dugald Malcolm Collection, illustrated by William Watson, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, London, 1962, pl. 51b and one illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, Gongyi Meishu Bian 5; Qingtongqi (The Great Treasury of Chinese Fine Arts, Arts and Crafts), vol. 5; Bronzes (2), Beijing, 1986, no. 61, show the further possible variations, including an animal-head spout on the first and an almost human-like dragon-head spout on the latter. Once again the bodies are different. All of the he cited, like the present example, have a handle shaped as the arched body of an animal, but once again all are different animals with different surface decoration
An analysis by Conservation and Technical Services Ltd., University of London, is consistent with the dating of this lot
All of the he published are differently decorated, but the one with the most similar wide-mouthed, animal-form spout cast with similar scales and with similarly shaped legs is an excavated example from Shanxi Changzhi Fenshuilin, illustrated by So, op. cit., p. 411, fig. 84.4. On the same page are two further examples, figs. 84.3 and 84.5, which illustrate, along with the Sackler he, no. 84, the possible permutations, including bird-head spouts, slightly domed covers, and, in the case of fig. 84.3 (Collection of The Art Institute of Chicago), legs formed as birds standing on the shoulders of human figures. Two other he, one in the Dugald Malcolm Collection, illustrated by William Watson, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, London, 1962, pl. 51b and one illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, Gongyi Meishu Bian 5; Qingtongqi (The Great Treasury of Chinese Fine Arts, Arts and Crafts), vol. 5; Bronzes (2), Beijing, 1986, no. 61, show the further possible variations, including an animal-head spout on the first and an almost human-like dragon-head spout on the latter. Once again the bodies are different. All of the he cited, like the present example, have a handle shaped as the arched body of an animal, but once again all are different animals with different surface decoration
An analysis by Conservation and Technical Services Ltd., University of London, is consistent with the dating of this lot