A BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL (PU) LATE WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 9TH / 8TH CENTURY BC

cast with a wide concaved well encircled by low straight sides, decorated with a band of horizontal concentric lappets below the everted mouthrim, the high waisted pedestal foot cast with S-scroll double-dragon zoomorphs, further lappets and a wide undulating wave band enclosing detached scroll and loop elements

Robert Hatfield Ellsworth Collection, New York, no. B1160.

The development of this vessel form is discussed in an article by Cheng-Mei Chang, 'Two Bronze Vessel Types: Tou and P'u', Oriental Art, vol. XXIII, no. 3, Autumn 1977, pp. 317ff., where several related examples are illustrated; see, in particular, four vessels excavated from tombs at Shangcunling, Shenxian, Henan province, figs. 6-10, and two related pieces depicted in woodblock illustrations of early Chinese bronze catalogues, fig. 14, from the Xi Qing gu jian, and fig. 16, from the Bo gu tu.