EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH -10TH CENTURY BC

Minao Hayashi, in In Shu Jidai Seidoki no Kenkyu (Conspectus of Yin and Zhou bronzes), vol. 1, Tokyo, 1984, pp. 347-8, illustrates several zhi with similar slender, elegant profiles, including nos. 114, 115 (Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco), 117 (Museum Reitberg), 118-23, and pp. 350-51, nos. 146-49. Like the current zhi, no. 148, which has a plain, undecorated surface, is also cast in relief with the graph, ge. See, also, the Western Zhou zhi of similar form, but decorated with a narrow band of birds and cast inside the vessel with the character zi (son), from the Bella and P. P. Chi Collection, sold at Sotheby’s London, 7 June 2000, lot 9.