Wine Vessel

CultureChinese

DateWarring States period (480-221 B.C.E.)

MediumBronze

DimensionsOverall: 5 1/2 × 4 3/4 × 6 1/2 inches (13.97 × 12.07 × 16.51 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number35-74

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionElongated melon-shaped vessel with low foot ornamented in rope pattern. T'ao-T'ieh masks with rings on either side. Circle of cowry shells around neck and coiled serpent on lid. Incised inscription on foot and inside lid.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Chinese Bronzes, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1938, no. 191.

Art of late Eastern Chou: a loan exhibition, China House, New York, March 18 - May 7, 1952.

Chinese Art of the Late Eastern Chou Dynasty, China Institute, New York. mid-November--mid-December 1962.

Gallery Label

This vessel is a type that first appeared as a local type in northwest China around 400 b.c.e., possibly introduced by one of the non-Chinese peoples inhabiting the periphery. Its distinctive ovoid shape suggests that the type may have originally been based on a melon or some similar gourd. Gourds have been used in many early societies as containers and were sometimes imitated in ceramic or metal versions.

Provenance

Celestine Liu, Beijing, China;

Purchased from Celestine Liu through Laurence Sickman by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1935.

Published References

Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art 1935-1936, 3rd ed., no. 124 (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1935), Ill (repro.).

Elizabeth Lyons et al., Art of late Eastern Chou: a loan exhibition (New York: The Society, 1952), 22, no. 48 (repro.).

Capolavori nei secoli: encyclopedia di tutti le arti di tutti I popoli, in tutti I temp, no. 25 (Milano: Fratelli Fabbri, May 12, 1962), 21 (repro.).

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