A SMALL BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD FOOD VESSEL, LI

EARLY/MIDDLE WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 10TH CENTURY BC

Details

A SMALL BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD FOOD VESSEL, LI
EARLY/MIDDLE WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 10TH CENTURY BC
The body divided into three lobes above the slender legs, each lobe cast as an animal mask with almond-shaped eyes and rounded ears below pairs of oval 'eyes' set within a segmented bow-string-bordered band, with a pair of bail handles rising from the rim, with mottled milky- green and reddish-brown patina
6 1/8 in. (15.5 cm.) high

Provenance

Armand Trampitsch Collection.
Acquired in Tokyo, May 1985.

Literature

Chen Wangheng, Chinese Bronzes: Ferocious Beauty, 2001, pl. iii, no. 18a.

Exhibited

Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1990, no. 30.
The Glorious Traditions of Chinese Bronzes, Singapore, 2000, no. 27.
Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 2002-2006.

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Lot Essay

A li of the same shape and size, and with the same simple masks on the lobes, dated to early Western Zhou, is illustrated by J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, pp. 316-19, no. 26. Unlike the present vessel, the band below the rim does not enclose oblong 'eyes'. These 'eyes' are seen in the band on another similar li of somewhat squatter profile, dated to middle Western Zhou, excavated from a tomb at Shaanxi Fufeng Qizhen, illustrated p. 318, fig. 26.2.

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