LATE SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD, 6TH CENTURY BC

The fine decoration, and its arrangement on this dou, are similar to that of a dou illustrated by J. So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1995, p. 178, no. 24, where it is dated Eastern Zhou, late Spring and Autumn period, 6th century BC. However, on the Sackler dou the band of interlaced dragons appears on the everted crown of the cover, rather than on the flaring foot, as seen on the present vessel. Similar bands of interlaced dragons also appear on the everted crown of the cover, as well as on the flaring foot, of a similarly proportioned dou illustrated by B. Karlgren in A Catalogue of the Chinese Bronzes in the Alfred F. Pillsbury Collection, Minneapolis, 1952, pp. 154-55, pls. 78-79. Other comparable dou with similar cast decoration and of similar proportions have been sold at Christie's New York and include one from the Sze Yuan Tang Collection, 16 September 2010, lot 881, and one from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, 25 March 2010, lot 1017.