Collection
China
- Title
- 'Jiao dou' tripod
- Other titles:
- Tripod brazier (jiao dou)
- Place of origin
-
China
- Period
- Han dynasty 206 BCE - 220 CE → China
- Year
- 25 CE-220 CE
- Media category
- Metalwork
- Materials used
- bronze
- Dimensions
-
12.0 x 15.4cm bowl; 19.3cm overall height
- Credit
- Gift of Mr F. Storch 1980
- Accession number
- 8.1980
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
As with most Han bronzes, this tripod utensil is marked with a simplicity and plainness at odds with the elaborately decorated ritual bronzes of the preceding Shang and Zhou dynasties. The dragon's head, as cast on the long handle, may not have had a deep religious meaning, serving instead as an auspicious symbol. The 'jiao dou' was a wine-warming utensil, examples of which have been found in archaeological contexts placed atop iron stoves.
Asian Art Department, AGNSW, January 2012
- Bibliography (2)
-
Jackie Menzies, Three years on: a selection of acquisitions 1978-1981 1981, 'Asian Art', pg. 85-103, Sydney, 1981, 102 (illus.). cat.no. 33
Jackie Menzies, Early Chinese Art 1983, Sydney, 1983, (illus.) not paginated. cat.no. XVIII. See 'Further Information' for text.
- Exhibition history (2)
-
Early Chinese art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 26 Feb 1983–08 May 1983
Dragon (2012), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 18 Jan 2012–06 May 2012
