SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD, EARLY TO MID 6TH CENTURY BC

Details

A LARGE BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD FOOD VESSEL AND COVER, DING
SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD, EARLY TO MID 6TH CENTURY BC
The deep, rounded body is raised on three legs and is flat cast around the sides with two registers of rows of conjoined dragons with striated bodies and backward-turned heads, which are separated by a rope-twist band. Further similar bands of dragons decorate the inward and outward faces of the upright handles as well as the shallow domed cover where they are separated by plain bands, the outermost of which is trisected by three fixed rings cast with rope-twist borders. The bronze has a mottled brown and milky green patina.
15 7/8 in. (40.3 cm.) across handles

Provenance

Acquired in Hong Kong in the early 1990s.

Brought to you by

Michael Bass

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Lot Essay

A similar ding and cover of smaller size (30.7 cm. across handles) is illustrated by J. So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 1995, pp. 136-37, no. 14, where the author ascribes it to North-central China. Another ding and cover of similar proportions, but of larger size (54 cm. diam.) and cast with masks at the top of each leg, in the Shanghai Museum is illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji - 8 - Dong Zhou (2), Beijing, 1995, p. 21, no. 22, where it is dated to the late Spring and Autumn period.

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