Period: Spring and Autumn period (770--476 BCE)
Provenance: Unearthed from the M1 tomb at Guozhuang, Shangcai county, Henan, 2006.
   
The bath pot has a Dou-shaped round cover,a smooth rim, a short straight neck, a bulging shoulder, a large flat bottom, two dragon-shaped handles on the shoulder that each suspend two conjoined loop rings, and a band of raised whorl pattern on the shoulder. The vessel’s surface is covered all over with patterns of inlaid copper dragons. The inscription of 6 characters were carved on the interior of the cover and the shoulder. These were translated as The Marquis Yu of Zeng’s Bath Pot.
   
The bath pot is a water vessel for bathing. The warm and humid weather conditions in the Yangtze River valley meant that the people of Chu were bathing excessively out of necessity. As accordingly, the aristocrats of the Chu state created a set of water vessels exclusively for bathing, with the present pot being just one of them.
   
The Chu state was a regional power in southern China during the Eastern Zhou period, with present day Henan being one of the important areas that had Chu culture. The Chu tomb at Guozhuang of Shangcai county is a double-pit burial belonging to a highly ranked aristocratic couple. Of which, the No.1 pit yielded more than one thousand varied bronze burial goods and 200 pieces of jade objects, along with dozens of ritual bronzes bear inscriptions.