Page 57 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

ALLED A TOUHU, OR PITCH POT, this tall, imposing vessel served
as the target for the arrow-throwing game, popular from antiquity
C through the Qing dynasty. The most striking feature of the vessel is
the arrangement about its mouth of four 'ears,' or cylindrical appendages,
that served as the actual targets of the game. Two of the four identically
shaped and decorated ears have their thickened rims at the same height
as the vessel's mouth; the other two stand a little lower, their tops reaching
the midpoint of the upper pair. The elongated, cylindrical neck boasts two
high-relief chi dragons striding about its midsection on a plain ground,
each with a tail segmented into three scrolling flourishes; the upper dragon
has its head turned to look straight up, while the lower one is positioned
to look straight down. Four wedge-shaped vertical flanges with rounded
outer edges segment the compressed globular body into four rectangular
compartments. Each flange falls midway between two of the appendages
at the top of the vessel; if the tubular appendages represent the four points
of the compass, the flanges would represent the points between. The wide,
tall base that supports the vessel rises in two stages, the lower one with
decorated inclined walls set atop a thickened footring, and the upper one
with decorated concave walls that spring from the flat shoulder atop the
lower stage. Apart from the chi dragons about the neck, the principal
decorative motif consists of four taotie masks set against grounds of
squared leiwen, one mask in each of the rectangular compartments around
the belly of the vessel. Diaper patterns and small chi dragons enliven the
remainder of the vessel. The uppermost decorative band, on the neck and
its four appendages, includes a row of coiled C-dragons in thread-relief,
while the lower portion of the appendages and the corresponding section
of the neck have a band of squared leiwen diapering set on a diagonal.
Diapering arranged in a leiwen meander embellishes the next section
down on the neck. The relief chi dragons occupy the central portion of the
neck, bordered at the top by a wide, relief band and at the bottom by a
rounded, relief ridge. A band of leiwen set on a diagonal, each leiwen with
a swastika at its center [see 4], decorates the lowest register of the neck.
Below the three steps surrounding the base of the neck, four descending,
/e/wen-embellished lappets divide the shoulder into four compartments,
each compartment with a low-relief striding chi dragon that looks back
over its shoulder. Each small chi dragon is centered over a vertical flange;
each lappet is centered below a tubular appendage and above a taotie
mask. Divided into four compartments by relief vertical bands - with each
compartment centered on a flange - the concave walls of the upper

T H E R O B E R T II. C L A G U E C O L L E C T I O N 5 3