SHANG DYNASTY, LATE 14TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL VESSEL, POU
SHANG DYNASTY, LATE 14TH CENTURY BC
Raised on a slightly flared foot pierced with three apertures and cast with a band of abstract dragon scroll centered by an 'eye', the sides flat-cast with three large taotie masks with round eyes formed by birds shown in profile confronted on a slender flange and with a small dragon or bird with coiled tail positioned below the upturned tails of the larger birds, all between narrow borders of circles and below a band of further absract dragons on the sloping shoulder, with two bow-string bands encircling the waisted neck
8½ in. (21.5 cm.) across

Provenance

Bluett & Sons, London.

Lot Essay

Compare the larger pou of similar type, with a similar main frieze between circle borders and with similar abstract dragon panels on the shoulder and foot illustrated by R.W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Washington D.C. and Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, 1987, pp. 314-5, no. 51.

More from Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

View All