Page 33 - Christies IMportant Chinese Art Sept 26 2020 NYC

During the late Eastern Zhou period, 6th-3rd century BC,
various inlays were sometimes used to decorate bronze vessels.
These inlays included copper, silver, gold, turquoise and a
black matrix, which is seen on the present hu where it fills the
decoration. This kind of inlay can also be seen on two vessels
of Warring States date illustrated by Jenny So, Eastern Zhou
Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. III,
The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1995: one a faceted hu with
burnished copper inlays in a ground of black matrix, pp. 261-
62, no. 45; the other a stemmed fang hu from Shanxi Taiyuan
Jinshengcun M251, p. 263, fig. 45.5. A black matrix inlay can be
found on bronze vessels as early as the Shang dynasty.

1514 (detail)

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1514