Zun wine vessel

Thick, unusually heavy flanges, narrowing toward the vessel, divide the foot, bulb, and neck into panels. They are scored with alternating straight and T-shaped scores, the stem of the T turned inward instead of outward in the usual fashion. This is a most eccentric feature. The decor, on a ground of squared spirals, covers almost the entire vessel. The t'ao-t'ieh on foot and bulb are similar but vary in detail.The foot monster has a lower forehead shield, no eyebrows and S-shaped horns, as against the recumbent C-shaped horns of the beast on the bulb. The remnants of a vertical body and a leg are the same on both. In the lower neck belt are antithetical beaked dragons. Above are blunt, sturdy rising blades with a decor to be seen from the top. Flanking the flange, as a central line, are two antithetical dragons with strongly hooked beaks and C-shaped horns, their bodies going down (with a leg half way and a tuft lower down) meeting at the end of the blade. Together their heads form a t'ao-t'ieh (observe the ears in the outer border of the blade). In the decor throughout, the principal raised features, shaped as broad, flat bands, are quite smooth except for a few scores on the horns of the bulb t'ao-t'ieh. Patina green with patches of red. The symbol in the inscription may be an abbreviation of the graph lu. For a comment see Karlgren, Number 18 (50.46.97).