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Lot Essay
This elegant ding is raised on three legs cast in the shape of dragons with curved tails and gaping mouths that grasp the shallow, round bowl. The exterior of the bowl is cast with a broad band of three pairs of dragons shown in profile, each of which is confronted on a central flange to form an animal mask.
Hayahi Minao included the current ding in his seminal publication Inshu-jidai seidoki-monyo no kenkyu (Studies on Yin and Zhou Bronze Decoration: A Conspectus of Yin and Zhou Bronze Vessels), vol. I, Tokyo, 1986, no. 27, where he dated it to the early Western Zhou period. However, the discovery of a closely related ding of similar shape and decoration, but with a different inscription reading Pi Wei, from burial M269 at Qijiazhuang, Anyang, Henan province, which has been dated to the third phase of the Yin Ruins (Yinxu) period, suggests a more likely dating of the current ding to the late Shang period. See Meng Xianwu, Tomb No. 269 at Qijiazhuang, Yinxu Site, Acta Archaeologica Sinica (Kaogu Xuebao), 1991.3, pl. 10:4. Ding with flat legs continued into the Western Zhou period, as evidenced by several unearthed at Changzikou, Taiqinggong, Luyi, Henan province, illustrated in Henansheng Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo and Zhoukoushi Wenhuaju ed., Changzikou Tombs at Taiqinggong, Luyi, 2000, col. pls. 19, 20 and 21. The bowls of the Changzikou ding are shallower than that of the Shouyang Studio ding and are decorated with two bands of leiwen patterns.
Hayahi Minao included the current ding in his seminal publication Inshu-jidai seidoki-monyo no kenkyu (Studies on Yin and Zhou Bronze Decoration: A Conspectus of Yin and Zhou Bronze Vessels), vol. I, Tokyo, 1986, no. 27, where he dated it to the early Western Zhou period. However, the discovery of a closely related ding of similar shape and decoration, but with a different inscription reading Pi Wei, from burial M269 at Qijiazhuang, Anyang, Henan province, which has been dated to the third phase of the Yin Ruins (Yinxu) period, suggests a more likely dating of the current ding to the late Shang period. See Meng Xianwu, Tomb No. 269 at Qijiazhuang, Yinxu Site, Acta Archaeologica Sinica (Kaogu Xuebao), 1991.3, pl. 10:4. Ding with flat legs continued into the Western Zhou period, as evidenced by several unearthed at Changzikou, Taiqinggong, Luyi, Henan province, illustrated in Henansheng Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo and Zhoukoushi Wenhuaju ed., Changzikou Tombs at Taiqinggong, Luyi, 2000, col. pls. 19, 20 and 21. The bowls of the Changzikou ding are shallower than that of the Shouyang Studio ding and are decorated with two bands of leiwen patterns.