An Archaic bronze ritual wine vessel, you

LATE SHANG/EARLY ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC

Details

An Archaic bronze ritual wine vessel, you
Late Shang/Early Zhou Dynasty, 11th Century BC
The shoulder cast with a band of diamond-shaped leiwen centred at each side with a bovine mask between borders of small circles, the arched rope-twist handle crossing the broad axis suspended from arched loops, the spreading foot with two narrow raised horizontal bowstrings, the domed cover with a similar frieze of diamond-shaped leiwen between borders of circles around the six-lobed knopped finial, the interior of the base and cover with the same three-character pictogram, the bronze with a grey-green patina with areas of malachite encrustation
34 cm high

Sale room notice

Please note that the estimate of lot 216 has been changed and SHOULD read
NLG50,000-70,000 US$26,000-35,000

Lot Essay

A similar example is illustrated by Robert W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, p. 388, col. pl. 68. Other examples are illustrated in the Freer Chinese Bronzes, Catalogue, vol. 1, nos.56 and 57; by Karlgren, 'Bronzes in the Hellstrom Collection, B.M.F.E.A., Stockholm, no. 20, 1948, pl. 15, no. 2; by Karlgren, 'Some Characteristics of the Yin Art', idem, no. 34, 1962, pl. 6a; in Wenwu, 1974, no. 11, p. 92, fig. 5; in idem, 1975, no. 3, p. 74, fig. 1; by Watson, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, pl. 23a from the Ashmolean Museum; in the Idemitsu exhibition, Ancient Chinese Art, Catalogue, pl. 4, fig. 32; and in The Great Bronze Age of China, A Symposium, p. 38, no. 28

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