The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Wine vessel (Jue)

c. 1200 BCE

China, Shang dynasty

(c. 1600–c. 1046 BCE)
bronze
Overall: 22.7 x 17.2 cm (8 15/16 x 6 3/4 in.)
Cornelia Blakemore Warner Fund and Edward L. Wittemore Fund 1960.42
Location: 241A Arts of Ancient China

Description

Wine and food played a major role in ritual offerings to the ancestral spirits and the Supreme Ancestor (Shangdi) performed by the Shang rulers in the state cult of ancestor worship. A variety of wine vessels—each type given a specific name—was cast to bear witness to the power and artistic vitality of this remote civilization. This example of a jue wine cup is for libations. Other types of wine vessels include jia (wine warming vessel), fangyou (square wine container), and gu (beaker with a trumpeted mouth for pouring).
  • by 1937–?
    L. Wannieck Collection, Paris, France
    ?–1960
    (Bluett & Sons, London, England, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1960–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Published Karlgren, Bernhard. "New Studies on Chinese Bronzes," Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 9 [1937], p. 62."B2. 1071. Tsüe in Wannieck coll., our pl. LII (also Umehara I: 60). Upper part of belly and under side of spout and wing covered by dissolved t'aot'ie, tripled so as to have two pairs of eyes on belly and one pair on the underside of the spout."
  • Sueji Umehara 梅原末治. O-Bei shūcho Shina kodō seika [歐米蒐儲支那古銅精華 = Selected Relics of Ancient Chinese Bronzes from Collections in Europe and America]. Ōsaka: 山中商會, 1935. Reproduced: Pt. 1, V. 1, Pl. 60
    Karlgren, Bernhard. "New Studies on Chinese Bronzes," Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 9 [1937], 1–117. Mentioned: p. 62, no. 1067; Reproduced: pl. LIII
    Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review | 1960.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 47, no. 10 (December 1960): 223–254. Mentioned: p. 251, no. 25; Reproduced: p. 228, no. 25 www.jstor.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, “Four Ritual Vases,” March 27, 1962, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Ho, Wai-Kam. “Shang and Chou Bronzes.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 51, no. 7 (September 1964): 175–187. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 181–182, fig. 6 www.jstor.org
  • Consuming Passions: The Art of Food and Drink. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 26-October 9, 1983).
    The Arts of China from The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Mansfield Art Center, Mansfield, OH (February 27–April 10, 1983).
    Year in Review - Nineteen Hundred Sixty. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 30, 1960-January 1, 1961).
  • {{cite web|title=Wine vessel (Jue)|url=false|author=|year=c. 1200 BCE|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1960.42