A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, HE

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

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, HE
LATE SHANG-EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC
The vessel is raised on four cylindrical legs and cast on the sides with a band of taotie masks on the shoulder interrupted by an angled spout opposite a D-shaped handle surmounted by an animal head. Its slightly waisted neck is decorated with two bow-string lines and applied with two owl masks. The surface has a smooth green patina.
7 ¼ in. (18.4 cm.) high, Japanese wood box

Provenance

Fujita Museum, Osaka, acquired prior to 1940.

Literature

Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Art, Fujita Museum, Osaka, 1978, p. 3, no. 2.

Exhibited

Osaka, Fujita Museum, Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Art, Spring 1978.

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Lot Essay

He vessels are thought to have been used to mix wine. He with a lobed body and four feet, such as the present vessel, first appeared in the late Yinxu period and were popular in the early Western Zhou dynasty. A similar he found in Liujiazhuang Beidi M1046 in Anyang city, is illustrated by Yue Hongbin ed., Ritual Bronzes Recently Excavated in Yinxu, Kunming, 2008, p. 405, no. 222. The famous early Western Zhou bronze Ke He features a shape very similar to that of the Fujita he. See Wu Zhenfeng, Shangzhou qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng (Complete Collection of Inscriptions and Images of the Shang and Zhou Bronzes), vol. 26, Shanghai, 2012, p. 207, no. 14789. The Ke He inscription records the establishment of the feudal state of Yan in the early Western Zhou period. The Nezu Museum has a he vessel of similar shape with relief animal masks, but its shoulder, spout, and handle are undecorated, see ibid, p. 20, no. 14599.

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