Research Catalog

Title

Eastern Zhou ritual bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler collections / Jenny So.

Author

So, Jenny F.

Publication

Washington, D.C. : Arthur M. Sackler Foundation : In asssociation with the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution ; New York : Distributed by Harry Abrams, Inc., 1995.

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Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

• Arthur M. Sackler Foundation.
• Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (Smithsonian Institution)

Description

524 pages : illustrations (some color), maps; 37 cm.

Summary

• The supreme art form of ancient China was the bronze ritual vessel. Kings and nobles offered food and drink to their ancestors in spectacular cast bronze containers which served to advertise the owner's wealth and power no less than his piety. Many of the bronzes eventually found their way into the tombs of their owners, where they lay undisturbed for centuries or millennia until accidental discovery or the archaeologist's spade brought them once more to light.
• The vast collection of Chinese bronzes formed by the late Dr. Arthur M. Sackler ranges over the entire Bronze Age. The bronzes of the Eastern Zhou period, 8th to 3rd century BC, are the subject of this third and concluding volume of the comprehensive catalogue of the collection. In a thorough and up-to-date introduction, Dr. Jenny So, Assistant Curator of Ancient Chinese Art at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, gives a detailed account of the history of Eastern Zhou bronzes.
• Particularly valuable is Dr. So's systematic use of the latest archaeological discoveries to trace regional and chronological developments and to study the political context in which bronzes were made and used.
• . An especially valuable supplement to the volume is a major study of bronze bells coauthored by an archaeologist and an acoustical physicist, Professor Lothar von Falkenhausen of UCLA and Professor Thomas D. Rossing of Northern Illinois University. The Sackler Collection includes twenty-one bells, which were employed in the same offering rituals as the bronze vessels.
• Ninety color plates provide full documentation of the Sackler bronzes and over 560 black-and-white comparative illustrations help to set them in the context provided by archaeological research. Scholarly appendices report elemental composition data on the bronze alloys, lead-isotope ratios, and thermoluminescence dating tests of clay core material.

Series Statement

Ancient Chinese bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler collections ; v. 3

Uniform Title

Ancient Chinese bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler collections ; v. 3.

Subjects

• Bronzes, Chinese > To 221 B.C > Catalogs
• Sackler, Arthur M > Art collections > Catalogs

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 494-511) and indexes.

Contents

Foreword / Elizabeth A. Sackler -- Catalogue. 1-22. Ding, li and zhan. 23. Fu. 24-28. Dou. 29. Dui. 30. Lei/Ling. 31-35. Fou. 36-52. Hu. 53-57. Elliptical cup. 58-61. Elliptical vessel. 62-67. Pan. 68-73. Yi. 74-81. Bells. 82-83. Drums. 84-86. Other vessels. Appendix 1. Archaeological Excavations -- Appendix 2. Acoustical and Musical Studies on the Sackler Bells / Lothar von Falkenhausen and Thomas D. Rossing -- Appendix 3. Elemental Composition / Lore L. Holmes and Edward V. Sayre -- Appendix 4. Lead Isotope Ratios / W. T. Chase, I. L. Barnes and E. C. Joel -- Appendix 5. Thermoluminescence testing of ceramic cores of bronzes / Doreen Stoneham.

ISBN

0810932260 (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

95076788

OCLC

ocm33440284

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries