you BM-1988-0422.1

Period:Western Zhou dynasty Production date:10thC BC
Materials:bronze
Technique:
Subjects:bird
Dimensions:Height: 25 centimetres (to handle top) Height: 22.50 centimetres (to lid top)

Description:
Bronze ritual wine vessel, ‘you’, decorated with birds with long plumes. Inscription inside lid.
IMG


Comments:Rawson 1992:’You’ is a ritual wine vessel with an S-shaped profile, a lid and a long U-shaped handle. In use from the late Shang period until the middle Western Zhou.This vessel was formerly in the collection of the Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795) and is recorded in the catalogue of that collection, the ‘Xi Qing gujian’. The bird pattern is typical of the middle Western Zhou and can be compared with similar designs on jades of the same or slightly earlier date.