Description
This li vessel has a wide mouth, upright handles, straight neck, oval-rectangular four-lobed belly, and columnar legs. The neck is decorated with long-tailed phoenix patterns, and the legs are adorned with cloud patterns and triangle patterns. Eight distinct mold lines stretch perpendicularly from the mouth to the base of the vessel. The form of this vessel has not been seen in excavated or existing bronze ware. Upon examination by X-ray, a round pore-shaped patch was found under one upright handle, perhaps originally an opening for a spout. On the other side of the body, traces of repair for a loosened handle can be seen. This vessel may have originally been a four-legged he vessel of the middle Western Zhou, but was later patched and repaired, with two upright handles added, thus transforming into the lobed four-legged li vessel seen today.