PROPERTY FROM A MIDWESTERN COLLECTION
A WELL-CAST ARCHAIC BRONZE FOOD VESSEL, LIDING

Details
A WELL-CAST ARCHAIC BRONZE FOOD VESSEL, LIDING
SHANG DYNASTY, LATE ANYANG, 11TH CENTURY B.C.

Raised on three columnar supports, each lobe of the body cast in low relief with a taotie mask with bulbous eyes centered on a slender flange continuing up into a narrow band of confronted dragons, all reserved on a leiwen ground, with a pair of bail handles rising from the inwardly canted rim, the dark gray patina with mottled, milky green mottling and some blue-green encrustation
8 3/8in. (21.2cm.) high
Provenance
C.T. Loo Collection, Paris
Literature
M. Beurdeley. "Les bronzes archaiques chinois", Connaissance des Arts, August, 1957, pp. 3 and 54-59 (front cover illustration)
Exhibited
San Antonio Museum of Art, February-November, 1996, loan no. L.84.5. 1/132

Lot Essay

For a very similar bronze vessel, with the addition of decoration to the legs, see Pope et al., The Freer Chinese Bronzes, vol. 1, Washington, 1967, Catalogue, pp. 176-179, pl. 31, where the authors note that the strong, fully integrated taotie masks in relief, and the prominent flanges, are elements of the late Shang style. Several examples of liding were reportedly found at Anyang according to Huang Chun, Yezhong pianyu, n.p., 1935, 1937, 1942, 3 pts., I, A, 11 and 12; III, A, 9

Liding with flanges are less common than those without. For an example from the Oeder Collection, see Bernhard Karlgren, "New Studies on Chinese Bronzes", B.M.F.E.A., 1951, no. 23, pp. 1-80, pl. 1b
For other similar examples see, Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. II, Tokyo, 1976, p. 22, no. 6; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Handbook of the Collections, New York, 1993, p. 274; Mae Anna Pang, An Album of Chinese Art, from the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1983, pp. 30-31, pl. 4; and Ferne Volker, Frühe Zeiten, Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, 1982, Catalogue, p. 201, no. F3