LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 13TH-12TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD WINE VESSEL, JUE
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 13TH-12TH CENTURY BC
The vessel is raised on three blade-form supports and the sides are cast with three bow-string bands interrupted by an inscription under the handle. A pair of capped posts decorated with whorls rise from the rim. The bronze has a dark reddish-brown patina with some malachite and azurite encrustation.
7 ½ in. (19 cm.) high

Provenance

The K'ung Hsiang-Hsi (Kong Xiangxi, 1881-1967) Collection, New York, and thence by descent within the family.

Lot Essay

Two bronze jue of this type, with a plain body decorated with bow-string bands, are illustrated by Robert W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, pp. 190-93, nos. 16 and 17, where the author, p. 193, notes that jue of this type were cast not only in pre-Anyang times but also throughout the Anyang period. Bagley also proposes that jue with long legs and a compact body, characteristics seen in the present vessel, would date to the earlier half of the period.

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