EARLY SHANG DYNASTY, 14TH-12TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE FOOD VESSEL, POU
EARLY SHANG DYNASTY, 14TH-12TH CENTURY BC
The broad rounded body cast with a wide band of two large taotie masks formed by two pairs of large birds confronted on a narrow flange and with a descending dragon below each tail, between narrow bands of abstract dragons with large eyes, with a band of further dragon scroll with large eyes on the shoulder and another encircling the tall, flared foot below three rectangular apertures, with silver-grey patina and malachite encrustation
12¾ in. (32.5 cm.) across, box

Lot Essay

This pou is quite similar in its decoration to one illustrated by R. W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington DC/Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1987, pp. 314-5, no. 51; and to the pou in the collection of the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Köln, illustrated, ibid., p. 317, fig. 51.4. This latter vessel has a more canted shoulder with a pronounced edge, unlike the more rounded shoulder of the Sackler and the present pou.

More from Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

View All