Live Auction 2689Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art
A RARE LARGE BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD FOOD VESSEL, DING
Lot 1216

A RARE LARGE BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD FOOD VESSEL, DING

LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC

Closed22 March 2013

Price Realised

USD 135,750

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A RARE LARGE BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD FOOD VESSEL, DING
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC
The deep, rounded sides are raised on three columnar supports, and are cast in low relief with a wide band of snakes reserved on a leiwen ground, below a pair of bail handles rising from the rim. The interior is cast with a graph. The bronze surface has a dark silvery-grey patina with some green and azurite encrustation.
9 5/8 in. (24.4 cm.) high

Specialist note

The inscription appearing inside this vessel consists of the graph dan inserted between two human figures set back-to-back to form the character bei (north). Below is the character ge, represented by a dagger-axe with a tassel suspended from the tang. This inscription, Bei Dan Ge, appears on a fangyi illustrated by R.W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, pp. 428-9, no. 77. Bagley also illustrates, pp. 431-2, figs. 77.1-77.6, seven other bronze vessels bearing this inscription, all of which he characterizes as belonging to Style IV of the early Anyang period. Three of the nine Bei Dan Ge bronzes were from the large tomb WKGM1 at Wuguancun, which is attributed to the reign of Wu Ding (1324-1266 BC).
A ding decorated with a similar band of snakes and of similar proportions, but with a more everted mouth rim, from Anyang, is illustrated in A Catalogue of Shang Dynasty Bronze Inscriptions, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1995, pp. 36-37.