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Lot Essay
The yi was a water vessel that was used in conjuction with a pan for the ritual washing of hands. It was a late Western Zhou adaptation of the gong or the he, and continued into the Eastern Zhou period.
A similarly proportioned yi of comparable size, raised on similar flat dragon-form legs, and with a band of stylized dragons as opposed to the angular scroll seen on the current vessel, is in the Shanghai Museum and illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji - 6 - Xi Zhou (2), Beijing, 1997, p. 143, no. 147, where it is dated late Western Zhou. Another similar large bronze yi, in the Sedgwick Collection, is illustrated in the cataglogue of The International Exhibition of Chinese Art, London, 1935-36, no. 147. See, also, the large related yi sold in these rooms, 22-23 March 2012, 1511, which had a lengthy inscription cast in the bottom of the interior.
A similarly proportioned yi of comparable size, raised on similar flat dragon-form legs, and with a band of stylized dragons as opposed to the angular scroll seen on the current vessel, is in the Shanghai Museum and illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji - 6 - Xi Zhou (2), Beijing, 1997, p. 143, no. 147, where it is dated late Western Zhou. Another similar large bronze yi, in the Sedgwick Collection, is illustrated in the cataglogue of The International Exhibition of Chinese Art, London, 1935-36, no. 147. See, also, the large related yi sold in these rooms, 22-23 March 2012, 1511, which had a lengthy inscription cast in the bottom of the interior.