Archaistic Style Bronze Hu-shaped Vase With Taotie Designs, Qing Dynasty

China, Qing dynasty
Dimensions: 13″ (33.02cm) H, 7.8″ (19.81cm) W

Bronze hu-form vase ornamented with taotie masks and archaistic decoration. The vase recalls the Shang Dynasty hu-form ritual vessel, as well as the surface decoration, and construction. The pair of phalanges refers to the piece-mold casting technique customary to Shang dynasty metalworking. The horizontal band along the neck of the vessel features a taotie mask motif.

Piece-mold casting is a bronzeworking technique, where the desired vessel is first fashioned out of clay and is then covered with an additional clay layer that when dried and cut away reveals the casting mold. The original clay model is shaved down to create the interior core and the mold sections are reassembled to form the outer walls. This interior space between the inner and outer walls is filled with molten bronze. Joins–like the phalanges that appear on this object–aid in keeping the sections of the mold together. Although this hu-form vase does not use the piece-mold technique, the addition of the pair of falanges refers back to the archaic metalworking method.

Provenance: Shanghai Antique & Curio Store, 1985
來源：上海文物商店發票，1985年

清 銅饕餮蕉葉紋貫耳尊