A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL AND COVER, YOU

LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL AND COVER, YOU
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC
Of pear shape and elliptical section, raised on a spreading foot encircled by two bow-string bands, the sides cast with a raised band of angular leiwen spirals between borders of circles, with an animal mask cast in high relief on each side and two loops at the ends to which are attached the ends of the rope-twist handle, the domed cover with waisted sides and decorated with a similar scroll band below the segmented finial, the bottom of the interior and interior of the cover cast with an inscription, with mottled patina
9¼ in. (23.5 cm.) high, box

Provenance

Mathias Komor, New York, 1947.

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Lot Essay

The inscription cast inside the cover and in the bottom of the vessel, Fu ding, may be translated as 'Father Ding.'

A similar you with differently shaped animal masks is illustrated by R.W. Bagley, Chinese Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Washington, DC, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1987, pp. 388-9, no. 68, which is dated to the 11th century BC.

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