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Lot Essay
The one-character inscription consists of a hand holding a cowrie shell to the left of two angular lines, and may be read as "de" (to obtain or hold).
This ding is unusual in the type of taotie band cast below the rim. Not only is it cast in intaglio, but the masks are formed by the elongated scroll-filled bodies of kui dragons. Compare the related ding of similar profile, with similar notched flanges incorporated into the band of taotie masks formed by pairs of compact dragons cast in low relief below the rim and at the top of the legs, excavated from a Western Zhou tomb in Lingtai county, Gansu province, illustrated in Kaogu, 1976:1, pp. 39-48, pl. 6:4. Another very similar to the excavated ding is illustrated by B. Karlgren, "Marginalia on Some Bronze Albums", BMFEA 31, 1959, pp. 289-331, pl. 19a.
This ding is unusual in the type of taotie band cast below the rim. Not only is it cast in intaglio, but the masks are formed by the elongated scroll-filled bodies of kui dragons. Compare the related ding of similar profile, with similar notched flanges incorporated into the band of taotie masks formed by pairs of compact dragons cast in low relief below the rim and at the top of the legs, excavated from a Western Zhou tomb in Lingtai county, Gansu province, illustrated in Kaogu, 1976:1, pp. 39-48, pl. 6:4. Another very similar to the excavated ding is illustrated by B. Karlgren, "Marginalia on Some Bronze Albums", BMFEA 31, 1959, pp. 289-331, pl. 19a.