MIDDLE WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, CIRCA 9TH CENTURY BC

Details

A RARE LARGE RITUAL BRONZE WINE VESSEL AND A COVER, HU
MIDDLE WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, CIRCA 9TH CENTURY BC
The pear-shaped body cast in high relief with two wave bands, the lower band incorporating four stylized taotie masks alternating with addorsed dragon pattern, a further wave band on the flared neck interrupted by a pair of animal mask loop handles suspending ribbed ring handles, the whole raised on a spreading foot encircled by a similar undulating band, the cover with deep lower collar below a band of scrolls on the sides, the slightly domed center within a flared crown cast with a tightly coiled bird with long tapering beak, claw foot and long crest feather, with malachite, azurite and some ferrous encrustation
21½ in. (54.5 cm.) high

Provenance

Acquired in Hong Kong, 1991.
The Tsui Museum of Art.

Exhibited

Gems of Chinese Art: Selections of Ceramics and Bronzes from the Tsui Art Foundation, The Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1992-1995 (not illustrated in catalogue).

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Lot Essay

This magnificent vessel is very similar to a hu and cover of approximately the same size (53.7 cm. high) dated to the end of the middle Western Zhou dynasty, 9th century BC, illustrated by S. D. Owyoung, Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, 1997, p. 128, no. 36. Other similar large hu have been excavated at sites of middle Western Zhou date in Shaanxi province. See, for example, the slightly larger (60 cm. high) hu and cover excavated in 1960 in Qijia Village, Fufeng county, Shaanxi province, and now in the Shaanxi Museum of History, illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji - 5 - Xi Zhou (1), Beijing, 1996, p. 131, fig. 138. Also illustrated, p. 136, fig. 144, is another example of larger size (65.4 cm. high) excavated in 1976 in Zhuangbai Village, Fufeng county, Shaanxi province, and now in the Zhouyuan Musuem.

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