An archaic bronze ritual wine vessel, zun

EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY

Details

An archaic bronze ritual wine vessel, zun
Early Western Zhou Dynasty
Of characteristic shape with central knop, splayed base and flaring neck, the profusely decorated mid-section cast in rounded relief with taotie masks flanked by descending dragons against a leiwen ground, each taotie mask with a central ridge and curling nostrils forming the nose, the prominent eyes with horizontal cuts below narrow brows with descending hooks, all between two double bowstring bands above and below, the base of the interior with a three-character pictogram, the bronze with a fine moss-green patina with areas of encrustation
28 cm high

Lot Essay

A similar zun is illustrated by Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. II B, 1990, nos. 79, 80 and 81 and sold in our New York Rooms, 1 December 1994, lot 128

A similar vessel is in the Shanghai Provincial Museum, illustrated in Wenwu, 1965:5, pl. 3:1. Another was excavated from a Western Zhou tomb at Baicaopo, Lingtaixian, Gansu Province, illustrated in Kaogu xuebao, 1977:2, pl. 106-107 and pl. 5:4

Compare also the example illustrated in the Yenching Journal of Chinese Studies, Monograph Series No. 17, ''The Bronzes of Shang and Chou'', vol. II, Beijing, 1941, p. 280 (right)

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