Details
AN UNUSUAL BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD COOKING VESSEL AND A COVER, DING
MID-WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 9TH CENTURY BC
The slightly spreading body raised on three tall, tapering supports, and encircled below the rim with a band cast in thread relief with three elongated taotie masks formed by pairs of dragons with large oblong eyes and quilled bands confronted on a narrow flange, each followed by an extra segment filled with an eye surrounded by scrolls, the band interrupted by a pair of upright U-shaped handles, the slightly domed cover with sharp edge and cast with a narrow band of eyes and scrolls interrupted by three upright bird finials surrounding an angular loop handle, with a three-character inscription cast on one side of the interior and inside the cover, the surface mottled with green and azurite encrustation
11¾ in. (30 cm.) high
Literature
Luo Zhenyu, Zhen Song Tang ji gu yiwen, xubian, 1931, 1.16.2 and 1.16.3.
Luo Zhenyu, Sandai jijin wen cun, 1937, 2.33.3 and 2.33.4. (Rong Geng & Zhang Weichi 1958, p. 150.)
Zhou Fagao, Zhang Risheng and Huang Quiyue, Sandai jijin wen cun zhulu biao, Taipei, 1977, nos. 428 and 429.
Sun Zhichu, Jinwen zhulu jian mu, Beijing, 1981, nos. 0408 and 0409.
Hayashi Minao, In Shu jidai seidoki no kenkyu (In Shu seidoki soran ni), Tokyo, 1986, vol. 2, pl. 20, ding no. 222.
J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1990, pp. 276-7, no. 16.
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