A twin of Lotus-crane Square Bronze Pots attracted crowds of people this week in Henan Museum, Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan Province.

One pot, considered as the most precious treasure of the Henan Museum, meets its "twin sister", a similar square bronze port formerly kept in the Palace Museum in Beijing, for the first time for about 50 years.

The Pots are a kind of ritual ware during ancient China's Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.). Each of the twin pots is crowned by a crane standing on a lotus, and the two share the same shape, size and flower patterns that typify the style of ritual wares in ancient times as well as the changes in artistic features of the time.

The two pots were unearthed in Xinzheng, Henan Province, in 1923 when people were working on the tomb of a king of State of Zheng during the Spring and Autumn Period. Later, one pot, 124 cm high, was put in Henan Museum, and the other, 125.7 cm in height, has been held by the Palace Museum in Beijing.

The pots were used for holding wine in ancient China, especially on a ceremonial occasion, such as a fete, a banquet, a wedding or a funeral. The twin pot in the Henan Museum is regarded as the most beautiful and most valuable article among the over 130,000 cultural relics on display.

Experts of the museum told Xinhua that the twin pots are famous all over the world for their ingenious shape and masterly facture.Each pot has a long neck, a hanging belly and a cover decorated by two layers of lotus petals with a crane standing in the middle and fluttering to soar high.

On both sides of the neck are two dragon-shaped ears. The belly is decorated with many interlaced dragon patterns. Beneath the circular feet are two four-footed animals with mouths open and tongues out, serving as supporting poles.

With the vivid designs of the standing cranes and four-footed animals, the two pots are different from the traditionally serious and solemn style of bronze wares made in the Shang (1600-1066B.C.)and Zhou dynasties (1066-221B.C.).

Moreover, lotuses and cranes have never been found in the bronze wares of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, which represent the new style of alloy smelting techniques in the Spring and Autumn Period.

The twin pots and other bronze wares unearthed in Xinzheng are all typical works of the mid Spring and Autumn Period, integrating the art features of the West Zhou Dynasty (1066-771 B.C.) and of the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.).

These cultural relics also show the characteristics of bronze wares in State of Zheng, a combination of the art features in Central China with South China.

Eighty-three years after the twin pots were unearthed, thousands of Chinese and foreign people kept marveling at their beauty and grace, for the 3,000-years-old bronze wares still have the appeal to every viewer.

Li Hong, a researcher of Henan Museum, said the exhibition of the Lotus-crane Square Bronze Pots might be one with the fewest items on display - only two, in the museum.