.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Acquired by the present owner in May 1962.
Compare with the Ban gui with a lengthy inscription of this rare form, previously in the Qing imperial palace collection and re-discovered in 1972, believed to have been cast to commemorate the victory of Count Mao against the state of Yuanrong during the reign of King Mu of the Western Zhou period, illustrated by Ma Chengyuan, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1986, pl 43. Similar to the present bronze with its unusual raised legs, the Ban gui is cast with exaggerated protrusions from the handles that emerge into upturned dragon-like feet.
The addition of the feet on bronzes appeared in the second half of the early Western Zhou period and continued throughout the middle Western Zhou; for a discussion cf. R. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sacker Collections, vol. IIB, Harvard University Press, 1990, pp. 468-469.
Compare with the Ban gui with a lengthy inscription of this rare form, previously in the Qing imperial palace collection and re-discovered in 1972, believed to have been cast to commemorate the victory of Count Mao against the state of Yuanrong during the reign of King Mu of the Western Zhou period, illustrated by Ma Chengyuan, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1986, pl 43. Similar to the present bronze with its unusual raised legs, the Ban gui is cast with exaggerated protrusions from the handles that emerge into upturned dragon-like feet.
The addition of the feet on bronzes appeared in the second half of the early Western Zhou period and continued throughout the middle Western Zhou; for a discussion cf. R. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sacker Collections, vol. IIB, Harvard University Press, 1990, pp. 468-469.