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Ritual Vessel (Hu)
Shang dynasty (ca. 1500-1050 BCE)
Cast bronze
Ayer, Pratt and Museum Auction Funds
54.30

Vessels of this type are thought to have been used to prepare foods for special occasions and subsequently buried as grave offerings to accompany the dead. The complexity and intricacy of the designs indicate the high level of skill in creating bronze during the Shang and early Zhou dynasties.

The surface of this vessel literally teems with dense, tightly coiled patterns which are divided into bands or sections. Large raised circles protrude from the sections which create the stylized animal images often referred to as tao-tieh, one of the many types of dragons which inhabited the world of Chinese mythology. Four vertical flanges project from the vessel at the front, back and sides which probably originated as a means of disguising the seams left by molds in bronze casting.