LATE SHANG/EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC

Details

A LARGE BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, YU
LATE SHANG/EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC
The deep rounded sides crisply cast in high relief with four large taotie masks centered on and separated by notched flanges, which also divide and separate confronted birds on the pedestal foot, the pairs of similar birds below the everted rim similarly separated by flanges but confronted on small animal masks, all reserved on bands of leiwen, with a mottled milky green patina with buff earth encrustation allover
10 in. (25.5 cm.) diam., box

Provenance

Acquired by Walter Hochstadter prior to 1997 and gifted to Alice Chu, Mr. Hochstadter's companion in Australia, and thence by descent to the present owner.

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Lot Essay

A yu of approximately the same size (18.2 cm. high) and with very similar cast decoration in the Winthrop Collection, Harvard Art Museums, is illustrated by R.W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington D.C. and Cambridge, 1987, p. 500, fig. 96.7, along with another similar yu of slightly smaller size (17.8 cm. high) in the Pillsbury Collection, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, fig. 96.8. Also illustrated, pp. 502-3, no. 502, is a yu in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections with similar decoration, but also of slightly smaller size (17.5 cm. high) and with a less rounded, more tapering profile to the bowl.

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