Asian Art website: Wine Vessel (zun)

Having an elegant S-shaped profile with a flared mouth, the vessel body sits on a splayed ring foot. The principal designs around the vessel's belly are two pairs of confronted bird-like creatures with plumes, wings, and two long ribbons at rear. One ribbon curls forward over the bird's head while the other loops up and around a spurred volute at back. Above is a narrow frieze with two pairs of smaller birds that are aligned over their larger counterparts below. In each pair the smaller birds face each other, and at center between them is a small animal mask. Around the outside of the flaring lip are four blade-shaped panels decorated with hooked volutes. The primary motifs are cast in flat relief on a ground of leiwen spiral patterns. The eyes of the creatures are raised in higher relief as hemispherical accents. The unadorned areas between the rising blades echo the plain vessel foot. At the midpoint between the four principal birds, adjacent sections of the design are slightly off register along four vertical lines running from top to bottom. These lines mark the joint between four ceramic piece-mold sections used to cast the vessel. Bronze spacers are visible in the bare areas between the rising blades around the lip. They were spaced at regular intervals to control the wall thickness between the inner and outer molds during the casting process. Casting defects along the edges of the ring foot indicate the likelihood that this vessel was cast upside down. Over time the surface has attained a smooth, green patina, and the vessel's interior bottom has a cast inscription.