Covered zhou ritual food vessel

The bowl, in the broad and bulky shape of the Huai style, is supported by four human figures with horned animals' heads. The rigid ring handles have an out-curving lower projection which, with the outer bend of the ring, forms a dragon with a curled-up tail. This dragon has a head like a t'ao-t'ieh. The ring-shaped top of the lid, adorned with a triple-strand plait pattern in openwork, is affixed to the lid with a row of small props. The close affinity of this vessel to one almost exactly similar in the Royal Ontario Museum is interesting in view of the fact that the latter is known to have come from the Kin-ts'un tombs (Ca.450-230 B.C.). Patina green.