LATE SHANG DYNASTY, LATE ANYANG PERIOD, 12TH CENTURY BC

Details

AN ARCHAIC RITUAL BRONZE WINE VESSEL, JUE
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, LATE ANYANG PERIOD, 12TH CENTURY BC
With a deep 'U'-shaped body supported on three blade-form legs, finely cast in low relief to the centre with a band comprising two taotie masks, one centred on one of three notched vertical flanges, the other on a pictogram cast beneath the curved handle surmounted by a buffalo head, all reserved on a leiwen ground and below upright pendant leiwen-decorated blades, the rim with two capped posts, the vessel with an overall mottled milky-green patina and some encrustation
7¼ in. (18.2 cm.) high

Provenance

Acquired in Italy in 1997 from a private collection amassed in the 1980s.

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Caroline Allen

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Lot Essay

A pair of similar bronze vessels sold in our New York rooms, The Falk Collection, Part I, 16 October 2001, lot 164. Note the similarity in the main elements such as form, cast decoration and placement of the pictogram between this pair and the present lot.
See also a similar jue illustrated by R.W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Washington DC, 1987, p. 195, no. 18. In his entry for the jue, Bagley states that the shape and decoration indicate that vessels of this type date later than Fu Hao's tomb, that is, after about 1200 BC.

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