This support very probably formed one of the legs of a ding or fang ding. These appear to be peculiar to bronzes of the Anyang period of the High Shang where flattened blade-like leg supports were cast as zoomorphic entities. Cf.a ding from the Jiangxi Provincial Museum excavated from Qingjiang in 1975 with very similar legs, illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, Bronzes, Part I, vol.4 in the Gongyi Meishu Series, no.104; also exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1980, The Great Bronze Age of China, Catalogue, no. 17, where Robert Bagley notes that this style of flat legs probably represents a provincial variant from the Metropolitan style, and that these were precast (unlike the flatter Metropolitan style which were cast in the same mould with the body of the vessel). Another similar vessel but with flatter eyes and legs cast as dragons was exhibited at Hosobo Museum, Osaka, 1984, Chugoku no Bijitsu-Hitori no Gan, Catalogue, no.1; this is of smaller size to the vessel of which the present lot is part, measuring 29cm. high. This ding has upright loop handle surmounted by a pair of relief tigers; a rectangular fang ding is illustrated, ibid., no. 30, with slightly simpler legs