MIDDLE WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 9TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE TRIPOD STEAMER, YAN
MIDDLE WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 9TH CENTURY BC
Hollow cast as a deep basin encircled by double bow-string bands below a flaring rim set with upright bail handles and set atop a tripod li-form base cast with double bow-string bands that form a continuous chevron pattern on the lobed legs, the interior with three triangular support tabs projecting from the bottom of the basin section, with mottled pale milky green patina, an inscription cast below the rim on the interior
14¼ in. (36.3 cm.) high

Provenance

Acquired prior to 1985.

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Lot Essay

The inscription cast below the rim on the interior consists of a pictograph of a figure holding aloft a child (zi or 'son'), and what appears to be the character fu (lady).

Compare the yan of similar form with a single bow-string band below the rim, but none on the tripod base, found in a hoard of bronzes excavated in 1975 at Shaanxi Dufeng Famen Gongshe and dated to Middle Western Zhou dynasty, illustrated by J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1990, p. 528, fig. 74.4, where its shape is described as "characteristic of the first part of Middle Western Zhou".

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