A BRONZE TRIPOD VESSEL AND COVER, ding, the compressed bombe body raised on three pedestal legs with splayed feet issuing from masks, the rim with two U-shaped handles rising above the shallow domed cover decorated with three applied recumbent buffalo and ring handle, the cover elaborately and finely cast in low relief with narrow radiating bands of interlocking zoomorphic geometric spiral, three bands left plain, the decoration continuing on to the body and interrupted at the juncion with the legs, three bands cast in relief, one at the waist and two on the lid, areas of malachite and cuprite encrustation (one buffalo damaged, some restoration to one leg), Eastern Zhou Dynasty

Details

A BRONZE TRIPOD VESSEL AND COVER, ding, the compressed bombe body raised on three pedestal legs with splayed feet issuing from masks, the rim with two U-shaped handles rising above the shallow domed cover decorated with three applied recumbent buffalo and ring handle, the cover elaborately and finely cast in low relief with narrow radiating bands of interlocking zoomorphic geometric spiral, three bands left plain, the decoration continuing on to the body and interrupted at the juncion with the legs, three bands cast in relief, one at the waist and two on the lid, areas of malachite and cuprite encrustation (one buffalo damaged, some restoration to one leg), Eastern Zhou Dynasty
30.5cm. wide

Lot Essay

The result of thermoluminescence test, Oxford 666q23, is consistent with the dating of this lot

A very similar ding and cover with interlaced zoomorphic decoration, but with mammiform legs and recumbent tigers on the cover, is illustrated by Fong, ed., The Great Bronze Age of China, Fig.10, from Liyu, Shanxi Province. Cf. also, a smaller ding and cover in the Rietberg Museum, Zurich, but with rings instead of buffalos and of a plainer design illustrated by Brinker, Bronzen aus dem alten China, Catalogue no.7, p.37. Compare also the cover of an Eastern Zhou dun illustrated in Zhonguo Meishu Quanji, Qingtongqi, (xia), p175, no.175, excavated near luoyang, Henan
The result of thermoluminescence test, Oxford 666q23, is consistent with the dating of this lot

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