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Lot Essay
The wood box that accompanies this bell is painted with the characters Shang duo in seal script and two seals in cursive script, Tangfeng-lou and Qing Shi, which are the studio names of the renowned scholar, philologist, epigrapher, and antiquarian, Luo Zhenyu (1866-1940).
The first character of the inscription cast inside the bell is a clan sign, and the second character, Wei, is the name of the person who commissioned the bell.
This nao, and another bearing the same inscription, was first noted in 1895 by Wu Shifen, Jungu lu jinwen (vol. I, section iii), and was subsequently described by Sun Zhichu, Jinwen zhulu Jianmu (nos. 6326 and 6327).
Nao first appeared in north China in the late Shang period and continued to be made into the early Zhou. They were made in graduated sets of five or three, and were probably held upright in stands so that they could be struck from the exterior. A set of five found in Fu Hao's tomb in Anyang is illustrated in Yinxu Fu Hao mu, Beijing, 1980, pl. LXII (1). A set of three inscribed bells with similar horned masks from the Western Sector of Yinxu is illustrated in Kaogu xuebao, 1979:1, p. 74, fig. 71 and pl. 14 (1).
The first character of the inscription cast inside the bell is a clan sign, and the second character, Wei, is the name of the person who commissioned the bell.
This nao, and another bearing the same inscription, was first noted in 1895 by Wu Shifen, Jungu lu jinwen (vol. I, section iii), and was subsequently described by Sun Zhichu, Jinwen zhulu Jianmu (nos. 6326 and 6327).
Nao first appeared in north China in the late Shang period and continued to be made into the early Zhou. They were made in graduated sets of five or three, and were probably held upright in stands so that they could be struck from the exterior. A set of five found in Fu Hao's tomb in Anyang is illustrated in Yinxu Fu Hao mu, Beijing, 1980, pl. LXII (1). A set of three inscribed bells with similar horned masks from the Western Sector of Yinxu is illustrated in Kaogu xuebao, 1979:1, p. 74, fig. 71 and pl. 14 (1).