A RARE ARCHAIC BRONZE TRIPOD VESSEL, DING

EARLY BRONZES

Details

A RARE ARCHAIC BRONZE TRIPOD VESSEL, DING
SHANG DYNASTY

The hemispherical bowl raised on three flat dragon supports with eyes cast in low relief, encircled by an intaglio band of pairs of elongated birds with finely feathered upper edge confronted on narrow, shallow flanges to form taotie masks, below a flat, everted rim surmounted by a pair of loop handles, the interior cast with a barely discernible pictogram, with a gray and pale green patina and some cuprite and ferrous encrustation
7 7/16in. (18.9cm.) high, stand, box

Provenance

Stephen Junkunc, III

Lot Essay

Ding of this form raised on similar legs and of comparable size are in the Musée Guimet, illustrated by Jean-Paul Desroche, Asie Extrême, Paris, 1993, pl. 16; in the Museum of Eastern Art (Ashmolean), Oxford, illustrated by William Watson, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, London, 1962, pl. 9a; in the Yale University Art Gallery, included in the exhibition, Ancient Chinese Bronze Art, China House Gallery, New York, 1991, Catalogue, no. 8; and two others in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, are illustrated by Bernhard Karlgren, "Bronzes in the Hellstrom Collection", B.M.F.E.A., No. 20, 1948, pl. 51(1 and 2)

Of the ding mentioned, none has the same decorative band as the present example. Similar bands can be seen in rubbings illustrated by Minao Hayashi, Studies on Yin and Zhou Bronze decoration, vol. II, Tokyo, 1986, p. 8 and 9, the most similar being figs. 2-58 and 2-72