Lidded cylindrical tripod cup with ring handle, birds, dragons, trefoil, raised uniform curls arranged in a grid, and raised linked curls

1. Bought from C. T. Loo and Company, New York. For purchase price, see Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List after
 1920.

2. (Archibald Gibson Wenley, 1947). Sp. G. 2.975. Examined under microscope by Dr. William Frederick Foshag on May 12, 1947, and found to be made of Khotan nephrite. The type of nephrite and the carving show a marked similarity to jades discovered at Chin ts'un [Jincun] 金村 and Shou chou [Shou xian] 壽縣 (see F1930.31, F1939.26, et al.).

3. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Exhibited:

Arden Gallery, New York   January 10 through February 11, 1939.
University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, February 1940.

4. (Hin-cheung Lovell, 1971) See a similar piece of almost the same dimensions in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in an article by Wang Chen to [Wang Zhenduo] 王振鐸 entitled "Lun Han tai yin ch'i ch'i chung ti chih ho k'uei [Lun Handai yinshiqi zhong de zhi he kui] 論漢代飲食器中的卮和魁," Wen wu 文物 1964.4: 1--12, pl. I, fig. 2.

In this article, the author gathers together and studies two groups of vessels of diverse materials (bronze,  jade, lacquer, pottery, etc.), principally of Han 漢 date. One group is a cup of cylindrical shape with a single "finger"  handle, usually on three bear feet and with a lid. F1947.10 is an example. For this group he proposes to use the  name chih [zhi] 卮 to replace such diverse former appellations as hsia [xia] 匣, ho [he] 盒, lien [lian] 奩, and pei [bei] 杯. The chih [zhi] 卮  was a drinking vessel. The other group is a bowl, usually round but occasionally square, with a handle usually in the form of a dragon head. For this he proposes the name k'uei [kui] 魁. They were food vessels. There is ample textual evidence for both these names.

In his discussion of the first group of vessels, Wang Chen to 王振鐸 touches on the problem of the lien [lian] 奩 and states that the term lien [lian] 奩 should only be applied to containers specifically designed to hold mirror, combs, and other toilet articles. Such containers should consist of two cylindrical parts of equal height and slightly different diameters fitted into each other, thus providing a more flexible height than a tall cylindrical shape with a low lid. An example is the lacquer lien [lian] 奩 illustrated in Chung-kuo k'o-hsueh-yüan k'ao-ku yen-chiu-so [Zhongguo kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo] 中國科學院考古研究所, Hsin Chung kuo ti k'ao ku shou huo [Xin Zhongguo de kaogu shouhuo] 新中國的考古收穫 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanse, 1962), pl. 63, lower. (This extreme position taken by Wang 王 does not seem altogether valid, as witness our F1946.11 and F1951.2). Further, Wang 王 states that most of the vessels formerly called lien [lian] 奩, i.e., cylindrical vessels larger than his chih [zhi] 卮 and with two suspended ring handles instead of a single "finger" handle (such as our F1951.5), were not meant to be used as a box for toilet articles but were wine servers. For a fuller discussion of this problem, see Folder Sheet for F1951.5.

5. (Hin-cheung Lovell, 1976) The attribution is changed from Late Chou [Zhou] 周, ca. 5th-3rd century BCE to Late Eastern Chou [Zhou] 周--early Western Han 漢, 3rd century BCE.

6. (Thomas Lawton, 1978) Western Han 漢.

7. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 1, 2008) Vessel added as secondary classification.

8. (Stephen Allee, November 12, 2008) Changed Title from "Nephrite cup with cover" to "Cylindrical cup with cover."

9. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, March 10, 2010) Title: Lidded cylindrical tripod cup with dragon interlace.

10. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, February 27, 2024) Title changed from "Lidded cylindrical tripod cup with dragon interlace" to "Lidded cylindrical tripod cup with ring handle, birds, dragons, trefoil, raised uniform curls arranged in a grid, and raised linked curls"; Period One changed from "Western Han dynasty" to "Forgery in the style of Han dynasty"; Period One changed from "206 BCE- 9 CE" to "20th century"; and added Chinese caption by Jingmin Zhang.