Object: Basin (jian) with dragon interlace F1939.5

Provenance: 1938
Excavated in Huixian, Henan province, China in 1938 [1]

From 1938 to 1939
C. T. Loo & Company, New York from at least December 30, 1938 [2]

From 1939
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from C. T. Loo & Company on February 3, 1939 [3]

Notes:

[1] According to Rong Geng, Shang Zhou yiqi tongkao (Beijing: Harvard-Yenching Institute, 1941), vol. 1, p. 470 and vol. 2, pl. 874.

[2] See "List of the objects owned by C. T. Loo, New York [and left by him] at the Gallery for examination on December 30, 1938," copy in object file.

[3] See C. T. Loo's invoice, dated February 3, 1939, copy in object file. The object is dated in the invoice to late Chou dynasty, 5th century B.C.

Past label text: 1. (Keith Wilson, "Art and Industry: China's Ancient Houma Foundry," October 14, 2017 to Apr 15, 2018, Gallery 18, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution)

Basin (jian) with dragon interlace
Middle Eastern Zhou dynasty, ca. 500–450 BCE
State of Jin, Houma foundry
F1939.5

Pairs and Sets
Many Houma bronzes were produced as members of matching groups. This massive basin has a twin at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minnesota, while the cauldron on three legs might have belonged to a set that had as many as nine pieces in graduated sizes. Increased demand and the need to duplicate objects in different sizes may have encouraged the ancient designers at Houma to perfect mechanical means of reproduction. To speed manufacture, they simplified molds by making legs, handles, and other appendages separately and then casting them on later.

An inscription on the basin bears the name Zhi, a leading family in the State of Jin. The Zhi clan was wiped out during a power struggle in 450 BCE.

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Basin (jian) with dragon interlace