EASTERN HAN DYNASTY (AD 25-220)

Water pots were an essential component on a scholar's desk and were fashioned in a wide variety of forms, including fruit, fish and other animals, such as this very unusual and whimsical frog-form example. Other bronze animal-form water pots include two Six Dynasties examples in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Bronze Articles for Daily Use, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 159, no. 137, in the form of a mythical horned beast, and p. 160, no. 138, in the form of a tortoise. Like the present water pot, the Palace mythical beast-form water pot retains its original tubular water dropper. Both Palace water pots, like the current example, also have a small cup positioned below the mouth to hold the water that flows from the hollow body.