A BRONZE RITUAL RECTANGULAR FOOD VESSEL, FANGDING

LATE SHANG DYNASTY, ANYANG, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL RECTANGULAR FOOD VESSEL, FANGDING

LATE SHANG DYNASTY, ANYANG, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC
The body is raised on four columnar legs and is cast in rounded relief on each side with a taotie mask below a band of confronted kui dragons, all centred by vertical flanges which are repeated at the corners below the pair of upright handles that rise from the rim. The decoration has black inlay that contrasts with the mottled dark grey and green patina.
10 ¼ in. (25.8 cm.) high, 8 ¼ in. (21.2 cm.) across handles

Provenance

Acquired in Hong Kong, 29 June 1981

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Lot Essay

Square (fang) vessels had great significance to Shang and Zhou ruling elite and are much rarer than their rounded-form counterparts. The first vessel type to be cast in square cross section is the ding, such as the massive early Shang fangding (100 cm. high) found in Duling, Zhengzhou city, illustrated in Shangyi yiyi sifang zhiji, Hefei, 2013, p. 61. Scholars have noted that the casting of fangding is more difficult than round ding and that massive fangding vessels were reserved for nobility of the highest rank and symbolise the royal power (see ibid., p. 60). Two very similar fangding of slightly smaller size (24.4 cm. and 23.7 cm. high) bearing Yachou clan signs are illustrated in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, 1998, pp. 560-9, no. 96 and 97. Compare also a fangding (22.2 cm. high) sold at Christie’s New York, 22 March 2012, lot 1508.

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