Incorrect Username, Email, or Password
This object does not yet have a description.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2006.170.151
Title
Ceramic 'chunyu' bell
Other Titles
Original Language Title: 戰國 原始瓷錞于
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
bell
Date
5th-4th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China, Zhejiang Province
Period
Zhou dynasty, Warring States period, 475-221 BCE
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/173622

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Proto-porcelain: stoneware with thin ash glaze
Dimensions
H. 36.2 x Diam. 21.5 cm (14 1/4 x 8 7/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[J.J. Lally & Co., New York, March 2001] sold; to Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation, Woodside, CA (2001-2006), partial gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2006.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Partial gift of the Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation and partial purchase through the Alpheus Hyatt Purchasing Fund
Accession Year
2006
Object Number
2006.170.151
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Description
Tall upright form with circular cross-section, with straight sides rising to rounded shoulders, surmounted by a flat platform top with neatly finished raised edge and thick loop handle of arched form at the center; the open base slightly flared; decorated on shoulders with a double band of twin scroll motifs impressed above an engraved single line border; gray stoneware body covered with a thin olive-green glaze unevenly applied and showing mottled reddish brown coloration in some exposed areas due to oxidation during firing. The form simulates a type of bronze bell known as chunyu, which were hollow, clapper-less, and struck to emit their sounds.
Commentary
Compare to:
(1) Large proto-porcelain bell of closely related form and decoration excavated in 2003-2004 from an early Warring States period (5th-4th century BCE) aristocratic tomb near Mount Bizi, Changxing county, Zhejiang province, now in Changxing County Museum. See Wenwu [Cultural Relics] 1 (2007): 15, fig. 31 and 32; and Zhongguo chutu ciqi quanji [Complete Collection of Chinese Ceramics Unearthed in China], vol. 9: Zhejiang (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 2008), no. 12.
(2) Large proto-porcelain bell of very similar form and decoration attributed to the Warring States period in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco collection (accession no. B60P1823). See He Li, Chinese Ceramics: The New Standard Guide (London: Thames and Hudson, 1996), no. 41, pp. 68 and 109.

Publication History

  • Ancient China: Music & Ritual, March 20 to April 7, 2001, auct. cat., J.J. Lally & Co. (New York, NY, 2001), no. 9

Subjects and Contexts

  • Sedgwick Collection

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu