R.H. Ellsworth Ltd, New York, 21st December 1987.

安思遠，紐約，1987年12月21日

Jessica Rawson and Emma C. Bunker, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1990, cat. no. 43.

羅森及愛瑪．賓格，《青銅聚英：中國古代與鄂爾多斯青銅器》，香港，1990年，編號43

Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, ♌;Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1990.

《青銅聚英：中國古代與鄂爾多斯青銅器》，香港東方陶瓷學會，香港藝術館，香港，1990年

Cylindrical vessels of this form were based upon lacquerwares from the late Warring States to the early Han dynasty. The raised borders circulating the rims imitate the metal bands used to reinf൲orce the lacquer vessels. Zoomorphic feet and handles can also be traced bacꦉk to lacquerware. 

A set of Western Han dynasty lacquer vessels with gold-foiled figures and animals surrounded by clouds was excavated from Hanjiang in Yangzhou, Jiangsu, now preserved at 🉐the Yangzhou Museum, and published on th🃏e museum website. The set includes a cylindrical vessel ornated with silver bands and a fitted cover similarly adorned with a flower motif at the centre.

A larger gilt-bronze zun of this form but cast with an animal design in relief was excavated from Dachuan in Shanxi and is now in the Shanxi Museum, Taiyuan (Jessica Rawson, 'Commanding the Spirits: Control Through Bronze and Jade', Chinese Bronzes: Selected Articles from Orientations 1983-2000, Hong Kong, 2001, pp. 288-300, fig. 7). Rawson suggests that it was probably made for a member of the Western Han court. She observe💮s that the circular form of the Dachuan vessel "is typical of Chu lacquers and quite new to the Yellow river area" and it bears features borrowed from different areas. Stylistically inspired by the animal motifs in Mongolia and southern Siberia, the creatures are employed "to express beliefs derived from the south, and especially from Chu, but also from the state of Qi to the east" (p. 292). On the present vessel, while the animals are derived from ordos tradition, the scrolling clouds recall the flowing lines of Chu lacquer painting. 

A slightly taller covered vessel of this form, surmounted with a phoenix knop among three further birds, parcelled-gilt and silvered with two tiers of animals amidst clouds around the sides, was included in the exhibition Ancient Chinese Bronzes of Han Dynasties (202B.C.-220A.D.), Tenri University Sankokan Museum, Nara, 1990, illustrated on the cover. Compare also a white stone vessel of this form but without a from the tomb of Liu Hong (d. 306), Huangshantou, Hunan, attributed to the Eastern Han period, carved with two friezes of mythical animals among clouds, including a lunging bear similar to that of the present vessel (Rawson, op.cit., fig. 17 and 17a).