A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL AND COVER, YOU

SHANG DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL AND COVER, YOU
SHANG DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC
Of full pear shape raised on a pedestal foot cast with two bow-string bands, the shoulder flat-cast with a band of pairs of dragons reserved on a leiwen ground facing a small animal mask cast in relief on each side, the sides of the cover with upright scroll-filled blades and the top with a leiwen band incorporating two 'eyes' below a segmented knop, with rope-twist handle, the bottom of the interior cast with a two-character inscription
11 in. (28 cm.) high with handle

Provenance

Sotheby's, London, 16 November 1971, lot 9.

Literature

B. Karlgren, "Some Characteristics of the Yin Art", BMFEA, vol. 34, 1962, pp. 1-24, pl. 71b.
Hayashi Minao, "In Seishu kan no seido yoki no hennan", Toko gakuho 50, 1978, pp. 1-55, fig. you 1-4.
R.W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, pp. 396-9, no. 70.

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Lot Essay

The undeciphered graph cast on the interior of the vessel depicts a human figure in profile reaching towards a staff held by an isolated hand. In the entry for the present vessel in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, p. 397, Robert W. Bagley states that the "graph occurs in one oracle inscription, where it might be the name of a statelet".

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