83. See Keyser, “Decor Replication in Two Late Chou Bronze Chien,” 127–162.

84. See Bagley, “Replication Techniques in Eastern Zhou Bronze Casting,” 232–234; Bagley, “What the Bronzes from Hunyuan Tell Us about the Foundry at Houma,” 217.

85. So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, 43, 46. As So commented, “The wide distribution of bronzes with Houma décor styles testifies to the foundry’s large volume of production and to the penetrating influence of its manufacturing techniques. It is also evidence for an extensive trade network and for active artistic exchange between Jin and the states surrounding it in Shanxi” (Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, 43).

86. Because Houma artifacts identical in both shape and decoration are known, such as a bronze quadruped from Shanxi Hunyuan and two other precisely matched examples in Western collections, it is clear that reusable decorated models were used at Houma. For details, see Bagley, “What the Bronzes from Hunyuan Tell Us about the Foundry at Houma,” 214.

87. It is evident that this was not the case because matched bronzes manufactured by the pattern-block technique share precisely the same shape and look-like pattern units from the same set of blocks, but not exactly the identical decoration. See Bagley, “What the Bronzes from Hunyuan Tell Us about the Foundry at Houma,” 218. Apparently, the pattern units were applied twice individually to the mold instead of the model. One conceivable advantage for this strategy is the ease of withdrawing undecorated mold sections from a plain model. As Bagley explained, “Presumably, then, since there is no obvious reason for making two independent models, two moulds were being decorated. The caster must have begun with an undecorated model, formed two undecorated moulds on it, and then decorated the mould sections” (“What the Bronzes from Hunyuan Tell Us about the Foundry at Houma,” 218).

88. Houma casters could proficiently replicate multiple bronzes from a decorated model. This process, with nearly one thousand years of history in China by the time of the Houma operation, also allowed the devising of patterns in accordance with the object and serial production from a single reusable decorated model. Thoroughly versed in using decorated models, Houma casters for some unknown reason preferred the newly developed pattern-block technique, which must suggest some particular