LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE TRIPOD RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, LIDING
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC
The tri-lobed body is raised on three slightly tapering columnar legs, and is cast above each leg with a large taotie mask with rounded eyes flanked by a pair of descending dragons and reserved on a leiwen ground below a narrow band of key fret. A pair of bail handles rises from the rim. The bronze has a mottled green patina. There is a three-character inscription cast on the side of the interior.
6 7/8 in. (15.2 cm.) across handles

Provenance

Sotheby's, London, 2 December 1974, lot 6.
Montague Meyer Collection.
Gisèle Cröes, Brussels, 1985.

Literature

Wang Tao and Liu Yu, A Selection of Early Chinese Bronzes with Inscriptions from Sotheby's and Christie's Sales, Shanghai, 2007, no. 44.

Sale room notice

Please note the measurement for this lot should read 6 7/8 in. (15.2 cm.) across handles.

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Lot Essay

The inscription consists of a canine graph placed above the characters, 'Father Bing.'

The liding, a tripod ceremonial food vessel, is one of the classic early bronze types. Similar liding have been excavated and are also in museum collections. Two similar vessels are illustated by R.W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Washington, DC and Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1987, pp. 486-91, nos. 93 and 94, and several other similar examples are illustrated pp. 488-9, figs. 93.2-93.7. Another is illustrated by S. Owyoung in Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, 1997, pp. 64-5, no. 11.

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