LATE SHANG/EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL AND COVER, YOU
LATE SHANG/EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC
The pear-shaped body is raised on a spreading pedestal foot encircled by pairs of dragons with ribbon-like bodies divided by narrow flanges reserved on a leiwen band, and on the neck with a band of similar dragons confronted on taotie masks and separated by two rings to which are attached the bottle-horn dragon-mask terminals of the arched, swing handle cast with lozenge pattern. A band of similar dragons is on the domed cover which has a deep inner collar and a waisted circular handle. A three-character inscription is cast on the bottom of the interior of the vessel and inside the cover.
14½ (37 cm.) high with handle

Provenance

Warren E. Cox, New York, April 1967.
Arthur M. Sackler Collections, New York.
Else Sackler Collection, and thence by descent within the family.

Literature

Wu Shifen, Jun gu lu jinwen, 1895, vol. 1.2, p. 33.
Liu Xihai, Chang'an huo gu bian, 1906, 1.21.
Luo Zhenyu, Yin wen cun, 1917, 1.31.12, 1.32.1.
Fang Junyi, Zhui Yi Zhai yiqi kaoshi, 1935, 10.19b.
Liu Tizhi, Xiaojiao jingge jinwen taben, Shanghai: 1934, 4.22.1.
Luo Zhenyu, Sandai jijin wen cun, 1937, 12.53.2.
Ferguson, Lidai zhulu jijin mu, Beijing: 1938, p. 137.
Ma Xulun, Du jinqi keci, Beijing, Zhonghua Shuji, 1962, 51.
Zhou Fagao, Zhang Rishen, and Huang Qiuyue, Sandai jijin wen cun zhulu biao, Taibei, 1977, no. 2644.
Sun Zhichu, Cheng Qiu Guan jijin tu, Beijing: 1931, no. 4694.
J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1990, pp. 478-79, no. 64.

Exhibited

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Aspects of Ch'ang-sha Culture, 21 August - 24 September 1967.

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Lot Essay

The inscription consists of three characters, the first is gong represented by a bow, followed by a name, Fu Geng (Father Geng).

A you of similar shape, but with flat-cast taotie designs in the bands on the neck and cover, and with ram's-head terminals, is illustrated by B. Karlgren in A Catalogue of the Chinese Bronzes in the Alfred F. Pillsbury Collection, Minneapolis, 1952, p. 57, pl. 26. Another similar you, but lacking its handle, is illustrated in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1998, no. 63.

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