An archaic bronze wine vessel and cover (Hu), Late Western Zhou dynasty

Collection of Kirby C. Boyd, acquired in Beijing in 1910.

Collection of E.I. Cockell.

Collection of Anita Boyd.

Gifted to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, in 1975 (accession no. 1975.ed.6a-b)

This monumental vessel with its dramatic crown-shaped cover is a magnificent example of the archaic yet flamboyant style of bronze vessels crafted at the end of the Western Zhou period and which continued to become more elaborate in the early Eastern Zhou. Although more liberally decorated with grand geometric designs than its predecessors in the Shang dynasty, the present hu also retains in its design philosophy an austere and imposing sense of awe, largely abandoned in place of sheer opulence by the late Eastern Zhou. 

The present hu, which belongs to the later, more decorative type, is particularly unusual in the way the leiwen design has been shaped, including slanting and triangular forms of keyfret. For the development of this form and decoration, compare a hu from Zhuangbai, Fufeng, Shaanxi province, from the end of the middle Western Zhou period, illustrated in Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington, 1990, vol. IIA, figs.135 and 143a (right), with a related square-sectioned hu with crown-shaped cover excavated at Jingshan, Hubei, from the early Eastern Zhou, ibid. figs 153 (bottom right) and 179. 

A small number of related hu vessels of this type are known: compare a covered hu with similar triangular leiwen, a crown-like lid, and horned zoomorphic handles, preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession no. 001309); the famous inscribed late Western Zhou ‘Ceng Bo Yi’, also in Taipei, cast with a very closely related design in higher relief, illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Bronze in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1969, pl. 36; a closely related pair of covered hu, slightly larger and squatter in form with different handles, sold (one lacking its cover) at Christie's Hong Kong, 7th July 2003, lot 621; and another closely related example in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated without a cover in Shanghai Bowuguan cang qingtongqi [Ancient bronzes in the Shanghai Museum], Shanghai, 1964, pl. 75.