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Lot Essay
This impressively large bronze jue was formerly in the collections of Cao Zaikui (Qiufang, 1782-1852) and Pan Jiyu (Zengwei, 1818-1886). Cao Zaikui was a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, and renowned as a collector and researcher of ancient Chinese bronze vessels. The present jue is recorded in his seminal 1839 publication Huaimi Shanfang Jijin Tu (The Records of Auspicious Bronzes in the Huaimi Shanfang Studio). Cao's hall name, Huaimi Shanfang, is inscribed on the underside of the jade-embellished hardwood stand accompanying the current jue. Pan Jiyu, also a native of Suzhou, was a literatus who wrote a number of poems and essays. He was the fourth son of Pan Shi'en (1769-1854), who was the Grand Minister of State, Grand Secretary of the Hall of Military Glory, and Grand Mentor, and served during the reigns of four Qing emperors: Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang, and Xianfeng. Pan Jiyu's nephew, Pan Zuyin (1830-1890), was also a high-ranking official, as well as a famous collector who amassed a collection of more than 500 bronze vessels in the late Qing dynasty. Masuda Takashi (1848-1938) was an important collector and a Japanese tea ceremony practitioner in the late 19th and early 20th century, and served as a senior manager for Mitsui & Co.
The inscription cast under the handle of the present jue, zi bu, is rare to find on extant Shang bronze vessels, but is recorded on oracle bones. Some scholars, such as Hu Houxuan, suggest zi bu may represent the name of one of the many sons of the Shang king, Wu Ding. See Hu Houxuan, “Yindai hunyin jiating zongfa shengyu zhidu kao (Study of the marriage, family, kinship, and reproductive systems of the Shang dynasty)”, in Jiaguxue Shangshi Luncong Chuji, Shijiazhuang, 2002, pp. 98-100). However, in his discussion of the current jue in “Shilun shangdai qingtongqi mingwen zhong suo fanying de gongtong zuoqi xianxiang (Discussion on the phenomenon of collaborative sponsorship reflected in the inscriptions on the bronze vessels of the Shang dynasty)”, Message of the Research Center for Ancient Civilizations of CASS, vol. 14, 2007, pp. 23-33, Yan Zhibin notes that because the present jue shows stylistic features of Phase IV of Yinxu rather than Phase II of the Wu Ding era, zi bu should be interpreted as a clan sign.
A bronze jue with similar decoration, but of larger size (33.7 cm.), in the Alfred F. Pillsbury Collection in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, is illustrated by Bernhard Karlgren in A Catalogue of the Chinese Bronzes in the Alfred F. Pillsbury Collection, Minneapolis, 1952, pp. 41-42, pl. 17, no. 13.
The inscription cast under the handle of the present jue, zi bu, is rare to find on extant Shang bronze vessels, but is recorded on oracle bones. Some scholars, such as Hu Houxuan, suggest zi bu may represent the name of one of the many sons of the Shang king, Wu Ding. See Hu Houxuan, “Yindai hunyin jiating zongfa shengyu zhidu kao (Study of the marriage, family, kinship, and reproductive systems of the Shang dynasty)”, in Jiaguxue Shangshi Luncong Chuji, Shijiazhuang, 2002, pp. 98-100). However, in his discussion of the current jue in “Shilun shangdai qingtongqi mingwen zhong suo fanying de gongtong zuoqi xianxiang (Discussion on the phenomenon of collaborative sponsorship reflected in the inscriptions on the bronze vessels of the Shang dynasty)”, Message of the Research Center for Ancient Civilizations of CASS, vol. 14, 2007, pp. 23-33, Yan Zhibin notes that because the present jue shows stylistic features of Phase IV of Yinxu rather than Phase II of the Wu Ding era, zi bu should be interpreted as a clan sign.
A bronze jue with similar decoration, but of larger size (33.7 cm.), in the Alfred F. Pillsbury Collection in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, is illustrated by Bernhard Karlgren in A Catalogue of the Chinese Bronzes in the Alfred F. Pillsbury Collection, Minneapolis, 1952, pp. 41-42, pl. 17, no. 13.