PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTION Christie's is delighted to offer the following finely cast archaic bronze ritual vessel, and a Tang dynasty straw and amber-glazed pottery figure of a horse (lot 1432), from a distinguished private collection. Shaped by a sophisticated and discerning eye, the well-curated collection included masterpieces from the Italian Renaissance and highly important Greek and Roman Antiquities, including a celebrated 16th century portrait by Scipione Pulzone and a magnificent bust of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, which realized impressive results in our recent December 2012 sale of Antiquities and the January 2013 Renaissance sale.

A LARGE BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD FOOD VESSEL AND COVER, DING

SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD, 6TH CENTURY BC

Details

A LARGE BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD FOOD VESSEL AND COVER, DING
SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD, 6TH CENTURY BC
The deep, rounded body is raised on three tall cabriole legs and has a pair of angular U-shaped, upright handles flat-cast with leiwen. The sides are flat-cast with a wide band of tight interlaced dragon- scroll pattern separated by a rope-twist border from a similar narrow band and pendent blades filled with taotie masks below. The pattern is also repeated in concentric bands on the domed cover which is set with three rings.
13¼ in. (33.7 cm.) high

Provenance

Christie's New York, 2 December 2, 1989, lot 26.

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Lot Essay

A very similar, but smaller (22.3 cm. high), ding and cover of this date, in the Reitberg Museum, Zurich, is illustrated by H. Brinker in Bronzen aus dem alten China, 1975-76, pp. 36-7, no. 7. A similarly dated ding and cover raised on similar legs and cast with similar dragon scroll pattern is illustrated by J. So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1995, pp. 126-28, no. 12, where the author also illustrates a 6th century BC ding and cover from Shanxi Houma Shanguacun M13, p. 129, Fig. 12.1, which shares a similar shape, legs and decorative bands.

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