Bronze Jue Ritual Wine Vessel Miniature

A miniature reproduction of a jue, the ancient Chinese ritual wine vessel. It has the classic form: an ovoid body on three flared, pointed legs, a long spout balanced by a pointed tail, two capped pillars on the rim and a beast-head handle. The surface is cast with fine key-fret and taotie-style patterns under a turquoise verdigris patina.

The jue is one of the most recognisable shapes of the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BCE), when vessels like this were used to serve warm wine during ancestral rituals. Oddly, the name came later: ‘jue’ comes from the Shuowen Jiezi, a dictionary from the 2nd century AD, written more than a thousand years after these vessels were made.