Wine Vessel (Hu) (early 400s BCE): Art, History and Details

Wine Vessel (Hu) (early 400s BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

By the time this wine vessel was cast, bronzes were increasingly losing their ritual significance and becoming symbols of prestige and conspicuous consumption. This globular jar (hu) reflects the splendor and luxury of the time. The jar is decorated with free-flowing scrollwork and interlaced zoomorphic motifs. Cast depressions were first made on the bronze surface and then inlaid with gold. A graceful fluidity is achieved by the many sweeping lines, curves, and tendril-like networks covering the round body.

Object facts

• Title: Wine Vessel (Hu)
• Date: early 400s BCE
• Culture: China, Warring States period (475–221 BCE)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze with gold inlay
• Dimensions: Diameter: 24.1 cm (9 1/2 in.); Diameter of mouth: 10.1 cm (4 in.); Overall: 27.6 cm (10 7/8 in.)
• Collection: China - Zhou Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1929.984

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Warner, Langdon. “A Chinese Exhibition at Cleveland Museum of Art.” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 56, no. 325 (April 1930): 205–211.
• Hollis, Howard C. “Two Early Chinese Bronzes.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no. 7 (July 1930): 135–137, 130.
• Chinese Bronzes of the Shang (1766-1122 B.C.) Through the Tʻang Dynasty (A.D. 618-906); An Exhibition Lent by American Collectors and Museums and Shown in Gallery D6 from October 19 Through November 27. New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art,1938.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.