Chinese bronze and enamel

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Chinese bronze and enamel
(Shang dynasty-19th c.)

The bronze casting of the Shang (16th-11th BC) and Zhou (11th-221 BC) dynasties in shape and decoration produced some of the world's finest Bronze Age works of art. They were first made as vessels for food and wine in ritual offerings from the ruler to his ancestors. Later they developed as luxury items at court and in the palaces of the upper echelons of the civil service.