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Lot Essay
The vessel is in the form of a jue, which is more usually seen in bronze. The bronze form was used for heating and pouring wine during Shang dynasty rituals. The capped posts rising from the rim would have allowed the hot metal vessel to be lifted from the heat and poured. The ceramic version of the form would not have been suitable for this.
The low ridges on the body of this ceramic jue may relate to the so-called 'bowstring' lines, which appear on some cast bronze examples. Indeed, the slightly globular form of the body on the ceramic piece relates to that on a rather more elongated bronze vessel in the Arthur M. Sackler Collection and dated by Bagley to 12th-11th century BC, see R.W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington, DC/Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1987, pp. 192-3, no. 17.
While a number of ceramic versions of Shang dynasty bronze ritual vessels are known, for example zun and gu vessels, fewer jue and jia are known. These tripod vessels with their slender legs would have been more difficult to fire successfully. A Shang dynasty jia excavated from Zhengzhou, Henan province is illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji, Gongyi meishu bian 1 Taoci, Shang, Shanghai, 1988, no. 70. Some greatly simplified jue have been identified, such as the vessel in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, illustrated by He Li in Chinese Ceramics - The New Standard Guide, Thames and Hudson, London, 1996,p. 63, no. 20. This vessel has no posts, a much shorter lip, and shorter, more sturdy legs. It would not have provided the same challenge to the potter posed by the current example, which has achieved a very similar form to that of the bronze examples. In order to fire its tall, slender legs successfully the underside of the jue would have had to be supported during firing, as would the extended spout. The same problems of support during firing faced the potters more than two thousand years later when they sought to produce this form in porcelain.
The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence analysis test, no.C101j70, is consistant with the dating of this lot.
The low ridges on the body of this ceramic jue may relate to the so-called 'bowstring' lines, which appear on some cast bronze examples. Indeed, the slightly globular form of the body on the ceramic piece relates to that on a rather more elongated bronze vessel in the Arthur M. Sackler Collection and dated by Bagley to 12th-11th century BC, see R.W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington, DC/Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1987, pp. 192-3, no. 17.
While a number of ceramic versions of Shang dynasty bronze ritual vessels are known, for example zun and gu vessels, fewer jue and jia are known. These tripod vessels with their slender legs would have been more difficult to fire successfully. A Shang dynasty jia excavated from Zhengzhou, Henan province is illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji, Gongyi meishu bian 1 Taoci, Shang, Shanghai, 1988, no. 70. Some greatly simplified jue have been identified, such as the vessel in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, illustrated by He Li in Chinese Ceramics - The New Standard Guide, Thames and Hudson, London, 1996,p. 63, no. 20. This vessel has no posts, a much shorter lip, and shorter, more sturdy legs. It would not have provided the same challenge to the potter posed by the current example, which has achieved a very similar form to that of the bronze examples. In order to fire its tall, slender legs successfully the underside of the jue would have had to be supported during firing, as would the extended spout. The same problems of support during firing faced the potters more than two thousand years later when they sought to produce this form in porcelain.
The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence analysis test, no.C101j70, is consistant with the dating of this lot.