Wine Vessel (Jia) (c. 1700–1500 BCE): Art, History and Details

Wine Vessel (Jia) (c. 1700–1500 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This wine-warming vessel, known as jia, is the earliest example of a Chinese bronze vessel in the museum collection. It reveals an already sophisticated bronze casting technology that would serve as the foundation for the later vigorous artistic developments of the Shang civilization. The use of bronze was a major turning point of the Chinese civilization. Bronze metallurgy flourished alongside other major developments in ancient China including cities, specialized craftsmanship, stratified social classes, and the invention of writing.

Object facts

• Title: Wine Vessel (Jia)
• Date: c. 1700–1500 BCE
• Culture: China, probably Henan province, Erlitou culture (c. 1900–1500 BCE)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 24 cm (9 7/16 in.)
• Collection: China - Neolithic
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1989.150

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Wilson, J. Keith, and Anne E. Wardwell. "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (1994): 270-347.

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.