A VERY RARE BRONZE WINE VESSEL AND COVER, YOU

BRONZES

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A VERY RARE BRONZE WINE VESSEL AND COVER, YOU
LATE SHANG DYNASTY (CIRCA 13TH CENTURY)

The compressed pear-shaped body undecorated except for a band at the waisted neck with a pair of dragon masks reserved on a leiwen-ground, with a second leiwen border encircling the splayed foot, and a third on the domed cover terminating with a conical knob, cast with a high relief horned serpent curled around the knob, the tall swing handle attached low on the body and cast with a pair of twin-horned reptile masks connected by the raised flattened flange suggesting the dorsal spine, the patina of silvery-grey tone with green encrustation
12 1/2 in. (32.5 cm.) high, box

Lot Essay

Acquired by the present owner in December 1972.

A number of very closely related you with covers are illustrated by Robert W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, 1987, pl. 61, in the Art Museum, Princeton University; fig. 61.3, in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm; fig. 61.4 from Anyang Wuguancun. A similar horned serpent positioned coiled on the cover of a fang you in the Pillsbury Collection, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, is illustrated in op. cit., fig. 88

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