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Lot Essay
In Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990, pp. 234-39, no. 6 and figs. 6.5-6.9, Jessica Rawson illustrates six fangding that are cast in the upper narrow bands with bifurcated or split snakes similar to those seen on the current vessel. Like those on the current fangding, the snakes on the illustrated examples have diamond-patterned bodies and are set against a leiwen ground incorporating small roundels with raised dots. However, while the sides of the current vessel are left plain under the upper band, the illustrated fangding are cast with a three rows of bosses surrounding a rectangular field.
Other related fangding, but which feature birds or dragons of varying types, rather than split snakes, in the upper narrow band, include the fangding illustrated by Chen Peifen in Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Shanghai Museum, London, 1995, p. 50, no. 23, which has leiwen in the rectangular field below a band of pairs of birds confronted on a flange; the fangding from the Doris Duke Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 21 September 2004, lot 150, which is very similar to the Shanghai vessel; and the fangding from Tengzhou Zhuang, Shandong province, illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji - Western Zhou, vol. 6, no. 2, Beijing, 1997, p. 73, no. 75, which has a plain field below a pair of kui dragons confronted on a small flange.
A bronze fangding bearing an inscription reading Bing fu yi is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and dated to the early Western Zhou period. The inscription is illustrated by the famed Qing-dynasty bronze scholar, Wu Dacheng, in Kezhai jigulu [The record of collecting antiques in the Kezhai studio], 1896, vol. 3, p. 6, pl. 2.
Other related fangding, but which feature birds or dragons of varying types, rather than split snakes, in the upper narrow band, include the fangding illustrated by Chen Peifen in Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Shanghai Museum, London, 1995, p. 50, no. 23, which has leiwen in the rectangular field below a band of pairs of birds confronted on a flange; the fangding from the Doris Duke Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 21 September 2004, lot 150, which is very similar to the Shanghai vessel; and the fangding from Tengzhou Zhuang, Shandong province, illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji - Western Zhou, vol. 6, no. 2, Beijing, 1997, p. 73, no. 75, which has a plain field below a pair of kui dragons confronted on a small flange.
A bronze fangding bearing an inscription reading Bing fu yi is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and dated to the early Western Zhou period. The inscription is illustrated by the famed Qing-dynasty bronze scholar, Wu Dacheng, in Kezhai jigulu [The record of collecting antiques in the Kezhai studio], 1896, vol. 3, p. 6, pl. 2.