LATE SHANG DYNASTY, CIRCA 11TH CENTURY BC

The use of frogs as decoration on Shang dynasty bronzes is quite rare. Those on the present finial have frog-like bodies, but the heads are more reminiscent of those of cicadas, with pointed beak-like mouths and bead eyes. Frogs of a more realistic type are found on the shoulder of a pou in the Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by R. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, p. 331, fig. 55.4. See, also, p. 377, fig. 64.7, a you with frog-form terminals to the rope-twist handle, in the collection of the Marchese Talliani di Marchio, Beijing.
For another unusual finial of Zhou date, also cast with composite elements, see the example in the Musée Guimet, illustrated by Minao Hayashi, Studies of Yin and Zhou Bronze Decoration, vol. II, Tokyo, 1986, p. 302, no. 10-166.