Page 16 - Status & Ritual Chinese Archaic Bronzes

Lot 21 grottoes and caves. The incense was not the so-called joss
sticks of alter periods but chips of fragrant wood and other
Lot 21 interior inscription aromatic materials.

Lot 14 In terms of casting, unlike the artisans of most early civilisations,
who employed the lost-wax technique in casting bronzes,
14 Chinese foundrymen of the Shang and Zhou periods utilised
the so-called piece-mold casting technique in producing their
ritual vessels. Those early Chinese workers first produced a
clay model in the shape of the desired vessel, carving – or, in
some instances, stamping – the decoration into the model’s
moist surfaces, after which the model was fired. Casting
molds were prepared by pressing moist clay against the fired
model; once all had been prepared, the mold segments were
fired. In preparing to cast the vessels, the mold segments
were properly registered and joined together around an inner
core; the assembled mold was then tightly bound together
and inverted, so that the vessel legs pointed upward and
the vessel lip and handles faced downward, after which the
molten bronze was introduced through sprues, or tubular
passageways; air within the mold and any gases escaping
from the molten bronze vented though a corresponding set
of flues. Once the mass had cooled, the mold was removed,
releasing the bronze vessel. The inversion of the mold ensured
that the bronze would reach the very bottom of the mold, so
that there would be no bubble flaws on the lip or handles of
the finished vessel; any bubbles that did interrupt the surfaces
likely would appear as casting flaws on the vessel legs.

The advantage of the piece-mold technique is that, unlike the
lost-wax technique, it gave the Shang and Zhou bronze casters
direct access to the interior faces of the casting molds, which
allowed them to correct any flaws in the decorative designs
and perhaps even to embellish them further, which permitted
precision casting of very fine design elements. Of course, in
completing the casting process, adhering mold fragments had
to be cleaned from the finished vessels and their surfaces had
to be polished and, in some instances, touched up a bit. But
what must be kept firmly in mind is that the decoration was
integrally cast with the vessels themselves, rather than chased
or chiselled into the surface after casting. The very intricate
surface decoration of Chinese bronze vessels, particularly the
leiwen, or background patterns (lot 21) perfectly illustrate the
sophistication of Chinese casting methods; in fact, they stand
in marked contrast to the often smooth, undecorated surfaces
of bronzes produced with the lost-wax technique.