pou BM-1980-0128.1

Period:Shang dynasty Production date:1500BC-1050BC
Materials:bronze
Technique:
Subjects:mammal
Dimensions:Diameter: 27.40 (at lip) Height: 28.50 centimetres Width: 46 centimetres

Description:
Bronze vessel of the the type called pou. The body is decorated relief roundels and interlocking Ts in panels divided by flanges. Every other flanges is topped by an animal head sitting in the shoulder.The interlocking design is continued between the heads, but this time combined with bosses instead of roundels. These bosses also appear on the footring together with a key-fret band.
IMG


Comments:Rawson 1987:Although much less striking than the ram zun, this large container probably also comes from southern China. Its comparatively large size ans summary casting are charateristic of southern bronzes. In addition the slightly uneasy combination of relief roundels with a continuous pattern of interlocking Ts is an unorthodox and therefore probably provincial rendering of metropolitan Shang motifs. Inside the body the relief roundels are reflected by deep recesses. This device is found on other provincial bronzes, including a pou in the Art Museum, Princeton University. Similar vessels are in the Shanghai Museum and in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm. These unprovenanced vessels are identified as southern castings because they are similar to zun found in Hunan province. Like the pou many of these zun carry hooked flanges descended from Erligang-period examples.