Home Bronzes Bronze fou (water vessel) with coiled serpent designs
Bronze fou (water vessel) with coiled serpent designs
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Date:Spring and Autumn Period (770-ca.475 BCE)
Medium:Bronze

Dimensions: Height: 29cm  Diameter at Mouth: 19.2cm

Origin: unearthed at No.1 tomb, Damaoping, Xiangxiang County in 1965

There are two kinds of Fou: Zun fou and Yu fou. Zun fou is a wine vessel while Yu fou is a water vessel. With a round shape with a cover, a small mouth and beast head-shaped handles on two sides of the neck, it is likely a Yu fou. Fou is a vessel with typical features of the Chu people. The shape and designs of this fou are characteristic of Chu bronze, such as bell-shaped handles in the center of the cover, a coiled serpent design on the inside of the handle and on the cover and body, which is common in bronzes of Chu. It was unearthed from a long and narrow tomb in Xiangxiang area, this kind of tomb is considered by archaeologists to belong to the ancient Yue people, the bronze of the Chu people found in tombs of the Yue people and several similar tombs with funerary objects of bronze of the Chu in the Xiangxiang area. How the Yue people got the Chu vessel is a question worth discussing.