SONG DYNASTY, 11TH-13TH CENTURY

The shape and inlaid decoration of this vase are similar to those of Warring States period prototypes, such as the example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, illustrated by Ming S. Wilson in 'Archaic Chinese Bronzes in the Victoria & Albert Museum', Chinese Bronzes: Selected articles from Orientations 1983-2000, p. 195, fig. 14. Other comparable inlaid bronze hu, also dated to the Song dynasty include one of somewhat different hu shape illustrated by M. Goedhuis in Chinese and Japanese Bronzes, A.D. 1100-1900, London, 1989, no. 77; one with similar pattern and rounded foot, dated Song-Ming Dynasty, from J.T. Tai & Co., sold at Sotheby's New York, 22 March 2011, lot 229; and another in the British Museum, illustrated by R. Soame Jenyns and W. Watson in Chinese Art II, New York, 1980, pp. 90-91, no. 56.