THE archaic Chinese bronze, which is the subject of this article, is in the collection of Captain the Hon. E. G. Spencer-Churchill. It belongs to the class called chüeh, which, among the ritual wine vessels, has the smallest capacity. A Chinese tradition assigns the origin of the peculiar shape to the form of a bird's head, and some support for this view is derived from supposed pictograms which are accepted as having been used to write chüeh in archaic script. On the other hand, certain pottery vessels, found recently at Hsiao-t'un , in Honan, the site of a late Yin capital, suggest a more plausible explanation. The place is famous as one where the inscribed bones first came to light about 1899, and often afterwards it has been claimed as the source of many ancient objects offered for sale.