However, based on their manufacturing technique and design, it is evident that the hu were made at the Jin State Foundry in Houma, Shanxi province, where bronze casting was centred during the Eastern Zhou period (771-221 BC).

The handles of the two vessels are designed in the shape of prancing tigers with reverted heads, and their open lids are made in the form of petalled crowns.

On the outer rim of the lids are identical inscriptions which record the casting of the hu by Zhao Meng [zh], a minister of the Jin State, for a meeting with the King of Wu at Huangshi in 482 BC.

The purpose of such meetings was to forge alliances between different territories and the two vessels may have been made to celebrate such an agreement between the Jin and Wu states.

Basse Yutz Flagons for a pair of bronze wine vessels that were made at roughly the same time on the other side of the world.