Mao Po Lieh Fu kuei

Western Chou dynasty, ca. 9th century B.C.
Height: 26.0 cm Mouth diameter: 19.4 cm Weight: 6090 g

The kuei vessel is, in principle, a bowl on a ring foot, with two or four handles. In the present case the vessel is supplied also with a lid, having an openwork ring for handle, and with three small feet added below the foot-ring. Just above each of these feet there is a small animal head .in high relief. The swollen body is decorated with a pattern of repeated scales, above which is a band of deformed dragon bodies, each with a single eye in high relief; the decoration of the lid is similar.
The inscription of 22 characters, repeated on the inside cover and inside the vessel, is typically formulaic, and reads: "Mao Po Lieh Fu made this precious vessel for Chung Yao; may sons and grand-sons, for a myriad years without limit, forever treasure and use it."

Click here for a larger picture
(image size between 100k - 300K)
and use the [BACK] Function key back to this page