For more than one thousand years, China’s nest artistic achievements were objects cast in bronze. From about the time this canteen was made, however, bronze began to give way to other materials, including ceramic and lacquer, as the primary mediums of talented artisans.

This canteen, an exceptional example from the final stage of the great tradition of bronze casting, illustrates the transition that was under way. Its complex design, a bilaterally symmetrical diagonal pattern organized on either side of a vertical axis, is derived from reliefs found on earlier bronze objects, most likely an intertwined motif of birds. Yet the inlaid decoration, of precious gold and silver, suggests an approach more painterly than sculptural: overlap is suggested by lines of dramatically varying width that stop and start like brushstrokes. The decoration demonstrates the influence of painting on lacquer, a material increasingly used during this period to create luxury objects. Unlike the ritual bronzes of earlier times, this canteen, with its costly material and painstaking design, was clearly made as a decorative item to impress anyone who had the good fortune to see it.

Not until [a Grand Officer] has made sacrificial vessels is he permitted to make vessels for his own private use.
—From li ji (the book of rites), about 200 BCE