WARRING STATES PERIOD (475-221 BC)

He of this shape were made in different styles, some with more elaborate features than others. This he belongs to the group which used exotic and fanciful elements as decoration. Jenny So in Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. III, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Washington D.C., 1995, p. 409, discusses the differences of he made in the north and the south during the Eastern Zhou period, and notes that those from the south have more elaborate decoration than those from the north. So illustrates a number of he, pp. 410-11, figs. 84.2-84.5, that demonstrate the differences in decoration, one of which is the example from the Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, p. 411, fig. 84.3, which is dated 5th or 4th century BC. The Buckingham vessel is very similar to the present he, except for the main bands of decoration, which differ from the very rare design of repeated pairs of confronted birds seen on the present vessel, in which the body of the bird on the left is inverted. The Buckingham he is also illustrated by Charles F. Kelley and Ch'en Meng-chia in Chinese Bronzes from the Buckingham Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1946, pp. 109-11, pl. LXII.