A LARGE ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL VESSEL, ZUN
A LARGE ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL VESSEL, ZUN

Details
A LARGE ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL VESSEL, ZUN
SHANG DYNASTY (BC 1600-1100)

The central section cast with rounded sides, decorated with taotie masks divided by three bovine heads on the angled shoulder, below a band of leiwen encircling the base of the trumpet neck, designed with bow strings repeated on the splayed foot, areas of malachite encrustations
17 5/16 in. (44 cm.) high, box
Provenance
Manno Art Museum, no. 1169
Further details
END OF SALE

Lot Essay

An almost identical vessel but of a smaller size (34.8 cm. high) in the Shanghai Museum, was included in the exhibition Shanghai Hakubutsukan ten, Tokyo, 1993, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 6. Both examples share the same sharply angled shoulder, divisional motif, and the unadorned foot and neck with exception of the simple bow-string design.

A similar bronze zun dated to the 11th century B.C., is illustrated by R. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Harvard University Press, 1987, p. 281, no. 45.

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