Tripod bowl with cover (dui)

Probably modified from bronze ding and gui shapes of the Shang-Zhou era, the dui appeared in the southern central Chu region during the late Spring and Autumn period. The Chu, who conducted funeral and ceremonial rites different from the people of the Central Plains, used two standard sets of ritual vessels consisting of dui, ding, and hu, or fu, ding, and hu. Most pottery dui maintained the shape of their bronze counterparts but, as seen in this piece, omitted the multiple-looped handles commonly placed on bronze dui. The Chu dui, with its two equal segments of cover and body, is distinctive from the northern dui with its more shallow cover. The soft-paste black ware embellished with metal foil was a special product of the Chu manufactured during the Warring States period.