ARCHAIC RITUAL VESSEL 'DOU'

Description:

China, Eastern Zhou/ Warring states period, 4th - 3rd ct. BC
H. 18,3 cm
The very thin-walled food offering vessel cast in the form of a round bowl stands on a high, elegantly curved foot, its lid bearing three co-cast rings serving as stands when, inverted, it was itself used as a sacrificial bowl. The simple decoration consists of a few bands with leiwen and meander patterns. Bronze cast in two parts, relatively uniform green-blue patina with some earthy incrustations.
Important Austrian private collection, purchased from E. & J. Frankel Ltd. New York, 1992
Publ. Exhibition 'Gentleman Prefer Bronze 8.5. - 21.6. 1980', "Twenty-fifth Anniversary Retrospect", New York, 1992, no. 29, p. 78-79
Zeileis 'From Shang to Qing - Three and a Half Millennia of Chinese Bronze', 1999, no. 91, pp. 262-263
Cf. Jenny So, 'Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington 1995, p. 189, no. 27 ; Historical Relics Unearthed in China, Beijing 1972, pl.74
Traces of age, corroded