Page 180 - Deydier VOL.2 Meiyintang Collection of Chinese Bronses

192. Archaic bronze wine or water vessel hu
Western Zhou dynasty, circa 11 - 8 centuries bc.
th
th
西周時期青銅壺
Height: 36.8 cm

A bronze vessel with a pear-shaped body, a long neck and Provenance:
a wide, splayed foot used for holding either fermented ▪ Galerie Christian Deydier, Paris, France.
beverages or water. The greater part of the vessel’s
elegant body is cast with double-lined fish-scale-like Similar example:
motifs filled with ornate, multi-lined, fingerprint-like ▪ A very similar vessel with the same kind of decoration
geometric patterns. The upper part of the vessel’s neck is and now in the Shanghai Museum is illustrated by Chen
decorated on front and back with a wide band cast with Peifen, Xia Shang Zhou Qingtongqi Yanjiu, Volume Xi
a pair of small, chubby, elaborately plummed birds on a Zhou Bian, Shanghai 2004, p.358 - 359, no. 344.
leiwen background confronting each other over a slightly
protruding vertical flange. The band of design is flanked
on each of its two sides by a lug handle.

The vessel has a dark green patina with malachite and
cuprite encrustations.

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