ZUN VESSEL IN THE SHAPE OF A BULL
Period: Spring and Autumn to early Warring States period.Medium: Nephrite jade.
Colour: Light green with patches of brown.
Dimensions: H. 20 cm.; L. 23 cm.; D. 7.3 cm.

The three lids are connected by a mythical winged beast. The mouth of the beast is open, perhaps in a growl, and its tail ends in the head of a bird.
The body of the bull is covered in elaborate low-relief carving of taotie and birds.
Several areas display bird script, also carved in low relief.


A bronze vessel of similar form was apparently found around 1923. Unfortunately I cannot lay my hands on the details, but will add to this if I do find them.

The bronze zun vessel is on the web site cultural-china.com and is dated to the Spring and Autumn period (c.771 - 476 BC). It is housed in the Shanghai Museum and was thought to have been used for warming wine. It has no lid. The dimensions of this vessel are - H. 33.7 cm.; L. 58.7 cm.