SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, HU
SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH CENTURY BC
The generous pear-shaped body raised on a flared oval pedestal foot encircled by a band flat-cast with pairs of birds facing a narrow flange on either side, the neck encircled by a band of two taotie masks formed by two large birds with rounded eyes confronted on a further narrow flange and with smaller birds standing beneath their tail feathers as they confront the pair of tubular handles cast in high relief with a dragon mask, with a pictogram in the base of the interior, milky green and brown patina and turquoise encrustation on the interior
15¾ in. (40 cm.) high, stand

Provenance

Purchased in China prior to 1960.

Lot Essay

The pictogram cast in the base of the interior depicts three figures supporting a pole from which a banner flutters. This pictogram, which has been deciphered as the Chinese character lü ("a troop"), appears on a number of Shang bronzes.
A very similar hu of slightly smaller size (35.3 cm. high) dated to the middle Anyang period is illustrated in Ritual Bronzes in the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, 1998, pp. 372-3, no. 62. As with the present vessel, the main decorative band is flat-cast with two dragons with rounded eyes confronted on a narrow flange to create a taotie mask, and the dragon masks on the tubular handles are cast in relief.

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