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Lot Essay
The inside of the foot of the vessel bears an inscription consisting of four characters, Wei Fu Fu Xin. A dedication to Fu Xin (Father Xin) is accompanied by two graphs. Above is cast an emblem showing four footprints encircling a rectangular ring, likely equivalent to a simpler character of oracle script, transcribed as wei. This may be read as a clan insignia, and commonly accompanies ancestral dedications, as it does here with Fu Xin, along with another pictograph depicting a quiver of arrows.
Compare the present vessel to a zun of similar style, dated to the Late Shang period, in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated by Chen Peifen in Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Shanghai Museum, London, 1995, p. 41. Another example of a zun of this unusual form can be found in the Pillsbury Collection, which is slightly smaller in size but almost identical in form and decoration. (See B. Karlgren, A Catalogue of the Chinese Bronzes in the Alfred F. Pillsbury Collection, Minneapolis, 1951, pp. 78-79, no. 26).
A comparable zun, similar in form but without flanges on the upper part, is illustrated by R. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington DC and Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1987, pp. 310-311. Another example of a vessel with prominent flanges, flared base and bulbous mid-section is the Boge zun of the Baoji City Museum Collection, illustrated by Li Xixing, The Shaanxi Bronzes, Xi'an, 1994, p. 170.
A similar flared bronze zun was sold at Christie's New York, 13-14 September 2012, lot 1226, fig. 1.
Compare the present vessel to a zun of similar style, dated to the Late Shang period, in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated by Chen Peifen in Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Shanghai Museum, London, 1995, p. 41. Another example of a zun of this unusual form can be found in the Pillsbury Collection, which is slightly smaller in size but almost identical in form and decoration. (See B. Karlgren, A Catalogue of the Chinese Bronzes in the Alfred F. Pillsbury Collection, Minneapolis, 1951, pp. 78-79, no. 26).
A comparable zun, similar in form but without flanges on the upper part, is illustrated by R. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington DC and Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1987, pp. 310-311. Another example of a vessel with prominent flanges, flared base and bulbous mid-section is the Boge zun of the Baoji City Museum Collection, illustrated by Li Xixing, The Shaanxi Bronzes, Xi'an, 1994, p. 170.
A similar flared bronze zun was sold at Christie's New York, 13-14 September 2012, lot 1226, fig. 1.