LATE SHANG/EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC

Details

A RARE ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, ZUN
Late Shang/Early Western Zhou Dynasty, 12th-11th century BC
The broad vessel finely cast around the exterior in medium and shallow relief with three registers of decoration, the spreading base and central section with two taotie masks, the flaring neck with upright 'cicada' panels enclosing animal scrolls, all raised on a finely cast leiwen ground and divided by four vertical flanges extending beyond the broad rim and cast on each side with unusual 'C'-scrolls, the bronze with an even pale green malachite patina, the interior of the mouth cast with a pictogram
9 3/8 in. (23.5 cm.) high

Special notice

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Lot Essay

Compare the example sold in these rooms, 15 November 2000, lot 91, also sharing the distinctive prominent flanges extending beyond the rim, a rare occurence, though found among Anyang bronzes cast during the late Yinxu period.

A comparable example from the Shanghai Museum was exhibited in the Hong Kong Musem of Art, illustrated, p.59, no.11, and in the Bronzes of the Shanghai Museum, Hong Kong, 1937, no.8. Compare also the smaller zun from the Pillsbury Collection with extended flanges, illustrated in The Catalogue of Chinese Bronzes in the Alfred F. Pillsbury Collection, Minneapolis, 1972, p.78, pl.39, no.26 and the fang zun and you in idem, p.80, pl.40, no.27 and no.14 fig.21. A fang zun also with extended flanges from the Freer Collection is illustrated in The Freer Chinese Bronzes, vol.1, Washington, 1967, no. 18, p.111.

The pictogram on the mouth rim could be read as zhui fu.

The results of thermoluminescence analysis report, Oxford R1899, is consistent with the dating of this lot.

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