An archaic bronze ritual wine vessel and cover, lei Spring and Autumn period | 春秋 青銅龍紋蓋罍

It is rare to find a jar of this massive shape and lavish design, although similar pieces have been published, with handles: one excavated at Tai'an, Shandong province and now in the Shandong Provincial Museum, is illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi, vol. 10, Beijing, 1998, pl. 69; another in Seiichi Mizuno, Bronzes and Jades of Ancient China, Tokyo, 1959, pl. 150; and a third was included in the exhibition Archaic Chinese Bronzes from Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Christian Deydier Oriental Bronzes Ltd., London, 1989, cat. no. 13. A jar with related design in the MOA Art Museum, Shizuoka, was included in the exhibition Chugoku Sengoku jidai no bijutsu, Osaka Municipal Art Museum, 1991, cat. no. 29.